Crime Abatement needs more than Prison say House of Assembly Members

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, November 10, 2023 – Despite the intention behind the 2022 criminal laws with longer prison sentences for firearms and establishing gang activity as a crime,  the changes have not worked to stem crime and an additional strategy must be sought, says Willin Belliard, Governor’s Appointed Member.

“We continue to lose young men senselessly.  Last year in October we passed some legislation and hoped that it would be a deterrent to the wave of criminal activity in these islands.  I do believe that it’s time we reassess and see what else it is that we can do as a country,” He said while speaking in the House of Assembly on October 26th.  The member, who is also an attorney, used his two minute speech to flesh out the issue.

He also called for more intervention from religious leaders and guidance counselors, maintaining that this was a key strategy which could help fix the social ills driving crime.

“There has to be a cause to this problem, and clearly increasing the punishment alone is not going to get us to where we need to go,” he stressed.

The remarks were tied with frustration over a report in the Guardian that shed light on the police’s alleged issues found in a 2022 UK review.

“Maybe we need a community holistic approach—- we need to do something to control what is happening in Providenciales.  Parents, community leaders, church leaders, we all need to get together.”

Belliard was supported in his statements by Gordon Burton, Speaker of the House; Otis Morris, Minister of Home Affairs and other members who spoke similarly against the ongoing violent unrest in the country.

Burton in particular was frustrated at the slow pace of proactive crime fighting measures

“…2018 I wrote a series of seven articles as to  how to deal with crime in the Turks and Caicos islands; one of those articles had to do with mediation and conflict resolution training in schools and the prison and the community and no one ever took it up.  For me, that would have been the means of de-escalating the formation of gangs in the schools, communities and in the prisons.  But nobody ever took it on, and I would like to reiterate that that is a proactive measure,” Burton said.

Prior to these comments, the Speaker had addressed crime at the start of the meeting and following this crime was addressed by nearly every member in the House on October 26th during two minute speeches or otherwise.