Rehabilitation gets its own Department, Jaron Harvey is new Director with 86% success

Dana Malcolm and Wilkie Arthur 

Staff Writers 

#TurksandCaicos, December 5, 2023 – The Probation and Rehabilitation Unit of the Turks and Caicos government has transitioned to the Department of Rehabilitation and Community Services and armed with new strategies they are successfully helping to prevent recidivism in the country.

In an enlightening session for those involved on November 21st,  the Department detailed that with its limited resources, it was already successfully helping to stop reoffending locally.

Jaron Harvey, Director of Rehabilitation led the event which focused on probation and parole, which they describe as alternatives to incarceration, fostering rehabilitation. For this rehabilitation to be successful, the Department has certain strategies, including addressing criminogenic needs for effective change and creating a holistic approach to the reintegration of offenders, including education, counseling, and employment.

Armed with an assessment plan, the Department of Rehabilitation and Community Services will aim to identify risk factors for re-offending in their clients based on criminogenic needs, these are factors that directly contribute to recidivism.

Cited as potential triggers were the criminal history, education and employment, family, companions, alcohol and drug dependence of the clients.  Then the Department creates a plan to effectively keep them away from crime.

“We have to tailor our intervention to their learning style so if they learn by playing, we have to play games, if they learn by watching videos, we have to watch videos,” he said.

Despite their hard work, there are some social issues which are barriers to clients; these include employment and ID challenges, societal stigma and personal struggles like substance abuse, mental health concerns or lack of education.

“There is a negative perception about offenders in the Turks and Caicos, and part of that is because people don’t understand what services are being made available to people who are caught in the criminal web,” Harvey lamented.

Representatives at the event shared one of their success stories under the pseudonym ‘John Doe’.  Doe was placed on probation for 18 months after committing burglary in January 2020. The team developed a case plan to address his criminogenic needs and he reported to a parole officer three times a week for sessions. By October of that year, he got an entry-level job and was promoted twice in four months.  By June 2021, he completed probation successfully and broke down in tears in the courtroom testifying that this was his first victory in his entire life.

As of 2023, John Doe has not reoffended and is still fully employed.

“This is a testament to the power of support rehabilitation and transformation,” Harvey explained.

But John Doe isn’t the only success story, he’s not even an outlier. Between 2019 to 2023 of the 12 clients helped by the Department, only one re-offended.

“We are functioning at about 86% success rate with limited resources,” said Harvey

During the meeting, several questions and concerns were raised by Magnetic Media including the length of time that some offenders have to wait for parole, we are told some offenders wait out their entire sentence, and parole applications are still not approved.

The Department recently visited Cayman to further its knowledge and is looking to introduce an electronic monitoring system by 2024.

What the Department of Rehabilitation and Community Services wants now is to give former offenders a chance to reintegrate into society without stigma and more resources to help even more residents.