Researcher says Kolbe prison is one of the best
Earlier in the newscast, we told you about disquieting research on male participation in violence, but not all that came out was negative. Doctor Gayle, who is the only anthropologist of social violence, not only spent time at schools and the police department, he also visited the Central Prison at Hattieville. There has been plenty local criticism over the airways about Kolbe’s management of the prison, but what Gayle said about Kolbe was pure vindication of their management of the facility.
Herbert Gayle, Anthropologist
herbert gayle
“I have a big question for Belize. What is it you want? What is it you want? Unlike many other persons here I have had a chance to visit seven prisons, seven. In the USA, Europe, St. Lucia all over the place. Kolbe Foundation runs the best prison I have ever seen in my life. And I say it without any apology. Then there has to be a question I keep getting from people. We need to interrogate our own interrogation isn’t it? The question is “Is Kolbe too good for Belize?” that’s the question. When people say why aren’t they beating and whipping them over there every day? What is the question? The question is “Kolbe has a problem. It has taken kids, I say kids because it seems that they are the ones doing the social work. The kids have landed on them. And what have they done. They have created a number of programs that I have looked at myself. Programs that I am aware of have been used in other countries. They’ve become a celebrated prison. A lot of Belizeans can’t deal with that. “How come our prisons celebrate?” So the question comes to you, “If the kids who are living in dog sit-down and crates, the ones whose parents go to the port and get the crate that eight of them sleep in. where the boys have to wait outside until the sounds die down inside; and is not a blue movie. If these kids tell you that Kolbe was the best place they ever been, should we change Kolbe into a rat nest or change the society?” That’s where I leave you.”
Enlighten us. Do these programs address behavior & offer effective ways for these young men to deal with peer pressure when they return to society.
Let’s not forget, we may be skeptical because they had employees who were taking a couple of infamous murderer out on the town on weekends, at least one prison esccape this year & at least one person shot, if not murdered by another inmate.
Most of the prisoners may have come from dirt poor situations,therefore the physical environment (bldg with plumbing etc.) may be much better than they ever experienced in life.
Maybe the Belizean people are complaining about management style or even corruption. I think this anthropologist didn’t touch all the basics before he made his conclusions.
His comments “What do the Belizean people want?” sounds very unprofessional.
Lets do a criminal background check on him especially since he is not Belizean. Remember the guy we hired who was head of the Jamaican Police?
Funny, it appears Belize attracts criminals or we hire them?
I myself have visited the Prison on a similar basis as Dr. Gayle, and i agree with him. if you are both skeptical, you should try visiting the prison yourself. don’t talk about things you don’t know. Typical Belizean mentality, bring down any initiative that attempts to do anything positive. just because you don’t understand what is happening. If you care so much visit the prison yourself, then talk. all you people do is TALK TALK TALK! BLA BLA BLA It’s frustrating. If each person who is so negative about the authorities, tried to do something positive, i’m sure we’d find ourselves in a better place
your damn if you do, damn if you don’t!
Low Conviction rate huh. Sound like genocide to me.( Poverty conceive frustration, frustration give
birth to crime,)Selling people dream about democracy, sound like illiteracy to me. How people
don’t have food fu eat but dem have guns fi kill. If Conspiracy don’t exsist, how can a man get
charge for Conspiracy to ship firearms and them type a foolishness. Dem di give uh nuh gun
fi uh nuh kill off uh nuh self, while uh nuh so call leaders the rob off the country dem and dem international investors buddies. After them dun microchip most of the Deporties dem, They send them home,to destroy their Society. They call that killing 2 birds with 1 stone or even 3. It a shame poor people can’t see it. YHWH. El Shaddai
Are we sure this man Herbert Gayle is a valid Anthropologist because he sounds foolish and illiterate .He doesnt seem to be touching on the subject he’s suppose to be researching, instead he seem to be degrading our system and country. Where does he comes from and who hired him?
Why do you belizean think so negative? thats the reason you get nagative things in life. think posstive just for one second please just for your own good. be thankfull on what you have.
sorry to say all this but if you keep thinking the way you are you will get no where in life.
if you are complaining then do something about it.
BELIZEANGYPSY:We Belizeans always think that foreigners are superior to us.Why wasn’t this research done by a Belizean born Anthropologist.Wouldn’t that have make more sense?Are you guys saying that a foreigner knows more about Belize than the Belizeans living there?
i am a proud belizean an to hear our young youth killing is crazy they should get all men in gail an put them on a war zone in iran so they can die or if you find them chop off their 2 hand or head lol???
They (prisoners) should all be working (hard or soft labour) to repay their debt to society. Form chain gangs to do work. Have them grow stuff for their own up-keep, and to sell to outside. Have them clean up the sides of the highways. Put those prisoners to work……………. Let them earn their keep like the rest of us.
I am in total respect to anyone who does a job and do it well be it a foreigner or a belizean, what I am against is these foreigners that comes to our country and make us look like we are uneducated and stupid, when in their country they are not of any use because they are bottom of the barrel material—— MORE RESEARCH ABOUT FOREIGNERS CREDENTIALS NEED TO BE DONE BEFORE THEY ARE HIRED IN BELIZE, thats my main point about this subject. We are so naive in our country that we take most people at face value and I will stick to my point that this ANTHROPOLOGIST sounds illiterate and stupid.
YOU SAID IT….. THE PRISON IS GOOD….. That is why people don’t care if they kill someone, couse they will go to a good prison… no problems, even better than out there, since you get to eat, sleep and work…. the government should kill who kill and punish the one who did a crime, not send them to a good prison. it may sound cold blooded, but check the history, they had to be a cold blooded governance so the future of the rest is better…. this is the only alternative the government has, cause they don’t have no money, to put camaras all on the street… more lights on the lamp posts, more patroling officers with good pay, free electricity for poor people on south side, free lunch for poor people at different churches, more schools with sports activity, so to join a sport team after that give u good pay….. but you see that could never happen…. so better put fear in them
Prison life is way too good in Belize, as a matter if fact it sounds like a resort or a hotel(Ramada) indeed. Prisoners have things real nice behind there, they live better there than they do in the streets where things are rough. Do any of you know how much tax payer dollars it takes to feed and house one inmate for a year????? It costs roughly little over $5000 a year per prisoner. Hmm …Kolbe seems to be making a whole bunch of mula on this deal. As time goes by people forget the true purpose of a prison which is to punish you for your wrondoings by incarceration and hard physical labour. Prison life nowadays is not a deterent to criminals because they know that if they go to jail then they don’t have to worry about anything for the time being. Everything will be taken care of by Kolbe. Prison needs to be rough…..no one should actually want to go there just to live good….
The reason a belizean did’nt do the study is because as usually we da gime gime all 4 me and God 4 us all.
Watch yea just mek we deal with the issue that Belize is ranck the 2 in the caribbean for violence out of 36 caribbean countries.
I agree with the comments made by BZNinCali and Egbert. It is not enough to make conclusions based on ‘what appears to be’ for this can be misleading. Ask the many professionals who have tried to put into place the components necessary to create real change in prisoners – they all got fired over the years! Counselors, Professional Educators, Professional Program Coordinators… Fired for trying to ensure that the Rehabilitation of Prisoners was meaningful. Those persons all had the good of our society at heart and endeavored to invest their knowledge and skills to make a difference – that’s not the Kolby way! It’s all about deception, manipulation and staged performances! In answer to Gayle’s question; What is it that Belizeans Want? The answer is simple – we want transparency and good governance for the 7.3 million dollars of taxpayers’ money that is being ‘pumped’ into the prison. Can you imagine a prison in the millennium operating in the absence of a Standard Operational Plan? or Procedural Manual? How is that for efficiency? Oh by the way, who is the new CEO of the Prison and how was that decision made? Dr. Gayle, we respect you but we live here and contrary to popular belief, we are not ignorant and we definitely know that there is a need for all of us to take a closer look at our Penal Institution as it plays an important role in our fight against crime.
Kolbe Foundation is not as good as Gayle says at all….where is the REAL rehabilitation that these prisoners get?? Its like putting a band aid on a severely bleeding wound caz majority of the time these “rehabilitated” prisoners become repeat offenders. I know for a fact caz I’ve had to visit that place time and time again that the biggest racket is happening right behind those huge fences/bars! To start off prison guards are paid at the minimum wage and yet are expected to put their lives in danger on a day to day basis -work hard hours, are locked up like the prisoners themselves etc. Now think about who are the ones being busted with drugs and other contraband that are thankfully intercepted before they get into the gates of the prison?? Guards……any surprise?? On the flip side, I know that many prisoners are on lock down for almost 24/7 –just locked up, frustrated…..And ready to explode…now unlike Dr. Gayle who has physically travelled to SEVEN(7) prisons all over the WORLD inclusive of Europe –I can only watch the Discovery channel and see almost first-hand how prisons are operated across the globe and I see prisoners being treated like human beings (not like animals like they’re treated at Kolbe) gaining a sense of purpose, acquiring knowledge through sound educational programs that are grounded in a solid curriculum and having the necessary resources to try to make a difference in their lives. Compare that with the programs at Kolbe, and how inmates are treated?? Anyway, My overall comment to Herbert Gayle –immerse yourself (that’s what most ANTHROPOLOGIST yearn for) as a Tango 10 inmate at the Kolbe Foundation for a month then come back with a report that it is the best prison>>>> plain and straight!!!
I’ve got no doubt that Kolbe is one of the best.No wonder the crime situation is out of control.The criminals probobly have flat screens in their cell.
70% of the prisoners at the Belize Central Prison are crack heads, with no rehabilitation programs these crack heads will come out in a year or two and continue robbing, assaulting etc…it’s a cycle. better something be done than not. only 3% of the population serving time for murder.
They might pay the guy to say what he says-belize hires outsiders-attorney generals(criminals with a lawdegree)police directors-etc,i think that UDP(pup same ….) think of belizeans as IDIOTS-shame.
PUT THE PRISONERS TO WORK!!!!
Babygirl and Melmon: VERY ENLIGHTENING COMMENTS. I’ve listened to Dr. Gayle, and for most part, I agree with him. However, his conclusion about KOLBE was probably a bit premature. Perhaps he would have gotten a more realistic view of KOLBE, if he had gone there UNANNOUNCED or UNDERCOVER.
The main purpose of prison should be PUNISHMENT (in a humane way of course) and REHABILITATION, so that when prisoners return to society, they will want to contribute in a POSITIVE WAY. For that reason, I believe the management of KOLBE has failed miserably. And if it’s costing taxpayers 7 million bucks, then we demand more AND WE DESERVE BETTER. Take back the prison from John Woods as he has turned that place into a 4 STAR RETIREMENT FACILITY for a bunch of lazy, lawless drug consuming criminals!
For the belizeans without job u betta go find work dah prison, 7.3 mil/yr to run a prison is alot of money. Taking out your anger by killing and maybe going to do time in prison where everything is free and secure, common, some people intentionally go back there when times get really rough. Put these fools to dig ditches, chop along the highway, grow their crops shackled together.