Mr. Bill Rattray says the Cayman Islands is locking up more of its citizens than just about any country in the world per head of population.

“Clearly what we are hoping is that the introduction of drugs courts and alternative sentencing initiatives will have an impact on the prison population.”

Commissioner of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the Cayman Islands, Mr. Rattray, says Northward Prison is accommodating more than 220 prisoners and this creates challenges because it is significantly more than the prison was designed to hold. He is hopeful that money is coming to build a new facility.

“We are working with 30 per cent over crowding and that stretches our resources quite dramatically,” he said.

He has been in Cayman for 18 months and is certainly not the first prison chief to face this problem. It has been a familiar refrain coming from Northward for years; however he has dramatically stepped up efforts to reduce the revolving door effect.

“We are now in the process of making improvements in the delivery of education. We have recruited a full time vocational training supervisor and we are putting in place a properly certificated vocational training programme,” he said.

Mr. Rattray says prisoners will have the opportunity to gain employable skills, including construction, carpentry and air conditioning servicing and repair.

Mr. Rattray is also working to help prisoners change their lives for the better.

“If prisoners don’t do anything about the behaviour or attitudes that got them into prison in the first place, then the chances are they will re–offend when they leave the lock up. We have now recruited two forensic psychologists and they are responsible for what are known as offending behaviour programmes.”

There have been group work programmes conducted in the Cayman Islands prison system in the past, but Rattray says what is significantly different this time round is that the violence reduction course, the substance abuse programme and the sex offenders programme will be internationally accredited, and that is a first for the whole Caribbean region.

“Right at the end of the line what we are trying to do is reduce victims of crime. In order to do that, we have to work with prisoners to prevent them from re–offending,” he said.

Another initiative involves putting in place a sentence planning programme for prisoners when they begin their period of incarceration.

“Every prisoner serving over two years will now have a formal risk and needs assessment done,” explained Mr. Rattray.

Prison officers are also undergoing additional training so they are better qualified to provide services and help prisoners address their offending behaviour. “We have now trained 70 prison officers as officer advisors. We have introduced a two–year learning course for each officer. They have to undertake 10 units of competence and at the end of that they will obtain a level three vocational training qualification in vocational care.”

Rattray says the target date for establishing the group work programmes and the vocational training programmes for prisoners is the end of the summer. “There has been research done in a variety of countries concerning which programmes are likely to reduce re–offending and the programmes that we are running are very much within the category of what works and what will have an impact.”