The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

CHILDREN will visit their parents in prison for the first time in a programme starting next month, according to acting Corrections Commissioner Doan Cleare.

He said the six-month programme will begin at the women’s prison, with children allowed to spend a day with their parents.

“The Cuban government has a rehabilitative programme called Grow Your Child,” he told reporters. “This programme allows for incarcerated men, especially, and females to have their kids come into the prison and spend the day with them. During that day, they attend classes with their loved ones, and this programme lasts for about six months.”

“So this is a programme that we tried to start here many, many years ago, from 2015, but it never materialised. So come next month, we’re going to start with a phased approach. We’re going to start with the female prison, then we’re going to move to medium, then the remand centre, and then maximum-security prison.

“All incarcerated men especially and females who are here, once they give us the names of their kids, they will come here and spend the day with them. The primary purpose of this is to break that cycle. There are too many fathers and sons incarcerated in here at this facility. So we’re trying to break that curse.”

Mr Cleare’s comments came after a ceremony at the prison where 27 inmates were graduated from a Journey Course Training programme.

The programme is an eight-week course that teaches inmates values from the book of Mark in the Bible. Some 300 people have graduated from the programme to date.

Kendra Bowe and the chaplaincy department support the programme at the facility.