News
Don’t Ostracize offenders says Prison Superintendent Woodbine
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 4, 2024 – His Majesty’s Prison in the Turks and Caicos Islands is working hard to rehabilitate offenders, but a major roadblock is how they’re treated in society after release, according to Michael Woodbine, Superintendent of Prison.
Woodbine was part of a panel of law enforcement executives who gathered in Grand Turk on Tuesday, February 20 to speak to residents in the Capital about crime and how the police could do better.
We can do lots of work , we can offer people support, we can offer people help and opportunities but the real burdens are when they come out of the prisons— we all know that accommodation, work and stigma are the real three drivers to reoffending,” the Superintendent stressed.
“When we talk about rehabilitation we’re not talking about changing someone into something they are not. We’re talking about repairing the damage that has driven them to be an offender, ” he explained, likening the process to
Woodbine maintained that prison officials through local programs could tackle risk factors but community acceptance was key
“We can help repair the damage done to someone, help make them a better person but they have to have hope when they leave.”
The superintendent detailed what was in place locally to continue the work of rehabilitation when offenders were sentenced.
“We are developing work so that all prisoners will have meaningful purposeful days. Those days will include going to work, earning money, it will include behaviour programs, self-improvement programs, programs around how to be productive members of society and those are coming online as we speak.”
Woodbine hailed the success of the new temporary release program which has facilitated over 100 occurrences of inmates going back into the community, and doing work or volunteering.
“Alongside all of this we have to engage the community,” Woodbine maintained.
As for high risk releases which have the potential to cause conflict Woodbine said,
”With the recent problems we’ve seen we now have programs in place for highlighting high risk offenders leaving the prison and working with police to make sure police are aware when those people are leaving and what their release plans look like so people can be tracked from the moment they leave which is very effective.”
Woodbine took up office as Superintendent in late 2022.