The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

ACTING Prison Commissioner Doan Cleare said the Bahamas Department of Corrections is making progress trying to be licensed as a correctional facility, with the American Correctional Association set to certify 30 officers in mental health management next week.

He said the facility has more than 149 mentally ill inmates, making managing them difficult.

“The cabinet of The Bahamas has already approved for us to get two full-time psychiatrists and two full-time psychologists,” he said. “Thus far, we have one on board now, one psychiatrist and one psychologist. We are happy to say that the American Correctional Association is now certifying our staff in mental health management. We have had 30 of them as already completed a ten-day training exercise, and they will be getting a certification on Tuesday of next week.”

Acting Commissioner Cleare spoke to reporters following a Probation, Parole and Community Industries Symposium at the Breezes resort.

During the opening ceremony, Mr Cleare explained the process of people being convicted of a crime to possibly being released on parole.

“When you come to the institution, we want to classify you properly,” he said. “Once we classify you properly, we want to give you a sentence plan. That plan is supposed to correct your deficiencies. In other words, whatever made you commit that offence, it is our duty and job to try to correct that issue.

“After we classify you and give you your sentence plan, we then seek to put you in a different section called programming. Programming is the section that pretty much will fix you if you could be fixed, because you know, some of these persons only God can fix.

“After programming, it is our job to track you in the institution to make sure that you are adhering to your correctional plan. Then case management follows you, then after case management is finished with you, you can go now to this thing called re-entry. We are now preparing you to come out.

“If you don’t have a valid licence, we provide one for you. If you don’t have a passport, we shall assist you. If you don’t have a job, we try to assist you. This is what the re-entry is for. So this is coming to the institution, and it has to come because you cannot do parole without it.

“So once re-entry is finished with you, we then turn you over to the parole in-house unit. This in-house parole unit will make sure to do a dossier on you and present you to the parole board, which is an independent body. The parole board would then say yes or no to if Doan Cleare can come out.

“So, if Doan Cleare comes out, it is a conditional release. Moving forward, when the justice gives 30 years, 30 years is 30 years.”

Mr Cleare said probation would ensure the prison’s resources are not wasted.

“With probation, on the other hand,” he said, “if I get angry and slap my brother and the police come and lock me up and charge me with assault, what am I coming to jail for, for six to eight months? To me, that’s a waste of resources.”

Mr Cleare said it is important officials introduce the parole system soon given that it has been in the works for nine years.

“Do you know how many lives we could’ve saved in this country had that been implemented in 2015 or 2016?” he asked.