Equality Bahamas: Prison should not just be for punishment (Eyewitness News)
Dec. 30, 2022, Eyewitness News
Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in Eyewitness News on December 30, 2022.
From Eyewitness News:
Wallace explained that an individual’s human right should still be upheld, saying that a person, having the right of being in a clean environment and access to healthcare fits into that description.
“We have to consider that the prison, should not just be for punishment, we often focus a lot on punishment after we’ve gone through the so-called, justice system, but don’t necessarily consider that these people will re-enter society.”
About 98 percent of offenders convicted and sentenced to prison will return to society at some point according to the Minister of National Security, Wayne Munroe, that considered, Wallace stressed the importance of maintaining a prisoner’s dignity and personhood while they serve out their time in BDOCS.
“So there’s this idea that, we say all the time that this person has behaved like an animal, you know put them all in there and treat them like animals, but what does that mean for their psyche and who they become and then who is released back into the general population.
“We are doing ourselves a disservice by not ensuring that when people enter that particular system that they are rehabilitated, that they gain a skill and that they are able to become decent members of society when they return because most of them do return,” Wallace stated.
About 98 percent of offenders convicted and sentenced to prison will return to society at some point according to the Minister of National Security, Wayne Munroe, that considered, Wallace stressed the importance of maintaining a prisoner’s dignity and personhood while they serve out their time in BDOCS.