Penal system to introduce parole
If you watch the American cop shows on television you know all about the system called parole. That’s when a convicted criminal who has behaved well in prison is released early under strict orders to stay out of trouble. Well it’s taken a while but parole, as I found out this morning, is about to become a household word in Belize.
Since the gates of Hattieville Prison were opened in 1993, it has witnessed a steady increase in the number of inmates to the point where the facility, which was built to hold a little over five hundred inmates, today houses over a thousand men and women. And this does not include the Youth Enhancement Academy in Ladyville, which although only eleven months old, is already home to eighty-seven young men.
One way the Department of Corrections is addressing the problem of prisoner overcrowding, is by instituting a parole system. According to Wayne Moody, the Department’s Programme Director, they’ve been trying to introduce the concept for the past fifteen years, but it was not until June of this year when an amendment to the prison rules was introduced, that both the Ministry of Human Resource and the Ministry of National Security started work in earnest on the formation of the parole system. One first step was the appointment of a parole board and eighteen parole officers. These officers, who are presently being trained at a two-day workshop, will be responsible for monitoring a parolee.
Wayne Moody, Programme Director, D.O.C.
“That is one of the key Jackie, because a person might be in for a drug offense, a pipe, the person is off because he does not have access to the drug and the person might recover. But when that inmate is actually released, if he does not have someone monitoring him, it is easy to fall back into the same environment, not having a job, not having a support system. It’s very, very easy for that person to return and it’s not just the prison system, but the community on the whole is being looked at to support a system that will cause people from not returning.”
But before an inmate can be paroled, there are a number of conditions that he or she must first meet. The law states that an offender must have served at least half of his sentence as well as be actively involved in a rehabilitative program at the prison. The inmate as well should have a very good record in discipline and behavior. Moody says if the prisoner passes all the requirements the person’s name and all other personal data is then submitted to the parole board to make a decision.
Wayne Moody
“Well according to the recommendation of the body in the law, these are the people who can actually be on the board. Someone who is in the psychiatric field, who can help in that area, someone who has a very good knowledge of the police system and there is no better person than a former commissioner of police. We also have Peter Martinez from Human Resource also and these are people; it is a wide range. Sir George Brown, who is very familiar with the whole penal system and again the superintendent and the P.S., who is in charge with the ministry.”
The parole system will have an inmate, on his or her first week of incarceration, undergoing an orientation program where they will be given a sentence plan that will show at what point they can be paroled and what programs at the prison, he or she can participate in that would assist in their rehabilitation process. Moody says once an inmate is given parole, the remainder of his sentence, before being released, will be under supervision and served in a half way house that will be constructed on the prison compound. Reports on the progress of those released and those prisoners to be paroled will also be kept up to date.
Wayne Moody
“Now there is going to be a progressive monitoring of the person as they do the sentence and as far as that is concern, the full time officers will be doing a monthly report. The superintendent will be doing a biannual report to the board on the status of every inmate in the system and the ones who are at the stage of being paroled.”
Moody added that only those inmates who are not considered a risk to the community will be eligible for the program, and those who are granted parole but violate the terms, will be returned to prison to serve out their time.
The first applications for parole will be heard by the board on August twelfth.
