Post jail follow-up needed to re-integrate first-time offenders

The recent spike in gun crime has triggered a call by a former government minister and attorney-at-law for the establishment of a national programme to help first-time offenders re-integrate back into society and away from a life of crime and violence.

The suggestion from Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley came on the heels of a call from Prime Minister Mia Mottley for a whole of country approach to tackle the issue of crime.

So far this year, 12 of the 17 murders recorded involved the use of a gun. Attorney General Dale Marshall recently confirmed the spike in gun crime while assuring residents that gunmen will not be allowed to hijack communities and drive people “into their homes and away from their normal pursuit out of fear”.

Speaking on a radio programme on Friday, Lashley, a former government minister in the last Democratic Labour Party Government (DLP) administration, said most men turning up before the law courts were under-educated, unemployed and engaged from early in the use of marijuana.

He agreed with a caller to the BrassTacks programme that there was need for “some sort of corrective measures” to be put in place and more to be done in the education system to help young people become more employable or create their own jobs.

Lashley said there was need for a national programme to ensure that when first time offenders are released from prison they are able to be productive citizens.

“Many times you examine that pre-sentence report there is an issue with their educational attainment, there is an issue with lack of role models, issue of early use of marijuana, and of course, lack of employment and self-esteem. So what is existing at the moment is that you have first offenders, they are coming to court, you give them a non-custodial sentence but you send them back out into society and they are still vulnerable. There is no system of tracking them,” said Lashley.

“So you know what, let us have the government agencies develop a national programme so we can see these first offenders that are vulnerable and we can be able to provide them with counselling and whatever – get them into some meaningful form of employment , counselling to reintegrate them back into society so that they become productive members of the society,” he said.

“I don’t think that we focus enough on the thereafter. How are we going to get these young people back into society? How are we going to make them now productive and responsible citizens,” he said.

Prime Minister Mottley said on Thursday that the issue of crime and violence has not been lost on her, as she promised to speak more on the matter within the next ten days.

However, briefly broaching the subject during her address to the country, Mottley said a whole of country approach was needed to address the issue, while urging family members not to uphold those “whose involvement in reckless and criminal activity is undermining our best efforts nationally and internationally”.

“Not only does it compromise the safety of all of us, but it compromises our capacity to attract tourism and other investment revenue that keeps our people in jobs and keeps our heads above water, and that keeps us from being able as a government to do more to help you as citizens,” she said.

“Every citizen of this country must recognise that we need a whole of country approach if we are to overcome all of these challenges, not just the inflationary ones, but the ones that are hitting us all at once, whether they are social or related to crime, or economic or indeed, environmental. These measures my friends, represent part of a multi-faceted approach and each citizen, each person resident here has a role and a part to play . . . we are all in this together,” said Mottley.

During a recent press conference, Attorney General Dale Marshall also indicated that one of the most effective ways of rooting out serious crime in Barbados was to take a national approach.

Some 465 illegal guns were seized in the last six years, along with several thousand rounds of ammunition.

Meanwhile, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus Professor Dwayne Devonish recently warned that Barbados was on the precipice of a health crisis related to gun violence and gang warfare.

Devonish also said there was a need for urgent and strategic action that must take on a multi-faceted approach including greater vigilance at the island’s ports of entry and building greater trust among the police force and residents to get more residents sounding the alarm on criminal activity in their communities.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb