Shereen Jones, assistant general manager, group operations and information technology, Jamaica National Building Society, shows Sekhem Ra, grade-six student, St Theresa Preparatory School, how to navigate Windows 8 software, on a computer donated by the society to the St Theresa Church Education Centre in Vineyard Town, St Andrew. Looking on are Tiffany Campbell, head girl, St Theresa Preparatory School and Reverend Walter Dorsey, St Theresa Church. JNBS donated two computers to the centre, which will be used by students at the school and children from the Vineyard Town community.
The Department of Correctional Services has moved to correct a long-standing oversight in its rehabilitation programme which has resulted in short-term inmates being overlooked, some falling through the cracks.
"Short-term inmates were inadequately served where rehabilitation was concerned. These inmates were either bypassed or they chose not to participate in any programmes, unless they were given hard labour by the court," Director of Rehabilitation, Marcia Wright told Monday's launch of the Behaviour Modification Programmes for Short-Term Inmates at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre.
"Statistics show that short-term inmates are usually repeat offenders, returning to the institution two, three times or even more," she disclosed.
It is an effort to have these inmates involved in the rehabilitation process, and give them tools to help avoid repeating offences, that this special intense, two-week programme was designed.
The new school, which can comfortably house 100 students, with state-of-the-art equipment such as whiteboards, was built by inmates supervised by the institution's projects team and funded by the British High Commission, to the tune of $6 million.
Vanna Lawrence of the Department of Correctional Services charged inmates to make good use of the facilities and use lessons learnt to impact other lives, beyond the walls of the institutions.
"That building now translates into a 100 per cent increase in classroom spaces at Tower Street, and that is very, very important but, as important as that is, it is much more important that the people who use it make proper use of it," she urged.
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