Probation chiefs in bid to standardise regional services

he newly formed Caribbean Association for Probation and Parole (CAPP) has embarked on an ambitious initiative to standardise probation services across the region, in a bid towards modernising the region’s criminal justice system.

 

CAPP is positioning itself to usher in significant changes in the regional criminal justice system, with a focus on reducing crime, improving citizen security, and fostering collaboration among Caribbean nations.

 

At a workshop held on Wednesday at the United Nations Marine House in Hastings, CAPP chairman Cuthbert Henry outlined the association’s vision following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between regional probation departments on Tuesday. The MOU which will remain in effect for five years, seeks to establish a formal network for CAPP to facilitate collaboration, share best practices and experiences, advocate for evidence-based policy reforms, and improve the effectiveness of these services.

 

Henry, the Director of Probation Services in Saint Lucia, explained that CAPP, which will be incorporated in Barbados, brings together heads of probation and parole services from across the Caribbean. Their aim is to develop a formal regional structure to enhance the effectiveness of probation and parole systems in tackling crime and improving citizen security.

 

“Because crime is transnational, what we are looking to do is to create a regime of what works in the Caribbean criminal justice genre,” Henry said. “We serve on the same modalities of legal frameworks in the Caribbean. A lot of our institutions have not had any sort of reform for the last number of decades.”

 

As its inaugural activity, CAPP, supported by the USAID-funded CARISECURE 2.0 programme, is conducting a comprehensive review of risk assessment tools for offenders. This includes evaluating the effectiveness of tools for sexual offending, juvenile offences, and substance misuse, with the goal of creating a standardised approach grounded in Caribbean-specific research.

 

“We’re scanning the tools that we use and our aim is to come up with a report that will say to our leaders in government that this is the situation, this is the landscape of what we do in terms of risk assessment,” Henry explained. “Some of those tools may very well after being put under scrutiny, we may very well find that these tools are quite suitable in the format that they are for our use.”

 

The workshop, which involved participants from Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Barbados, and other Caribbean nations, marks the beginning of a long-term effort to elevate regional probation services. Henry emphasised the importance of professional judgement and evidence-based practices in improving outcomes for offenders and reducing recidivism.

 

“We will deliver a product that brings our work to a level of excellence,” he added. “We have excellent professionals in the genre and we are able to support the work that is necessary to reduce crime and increase citizen security in the Caribbean for having the right apparatus, the right training, the right understanding of professional judgement, how it measures into actuarial and scientific evidence-based applications.”

 

CAPP’s next steps will focus on formalising their findings and presenting recommendations to regional governments. Henry expressed optimism that Caribbean leaders will support these reforms once presented with the necessary data and evidence.

 

“Our governments are already supportive of what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to provide them with the documentation and evidence they need to make informed decisions.”

(LG)