(ZIZ News) — During Wednesday’s tour of the Police Force’s Forensic Services Unit, National Security Minister, Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris appealed to the public, particularly the business community, to give ex-prisoners a second chance.
“Give them another chance, having served in accordance their penalty, in accordance with the law, to be better and more importantly, to do better. And so, you can’t continue to hold the crime for which they have already been penalised over their head,” he said, adding “We need to have a new look, a new approach of redemption in the society because these people can become the stalwarts now in preventing other young people from going into the prisons from which they have come.”
Commenting on what he described as “excellent worksmanship” displayed by prison inmates who renovated a section of the Forensic Services Unit, Dr. Harris said he’s confident that the government’s approach of rehabilitating inmates is the right way to go.
“The idea that we are pursuing with regard to the rehabilitation of the prisoners, that is something that can bear fruit because part of what we want is to avoid people coming out of prison and then going back there, especially going back there too quickly,” he said.
He spoke of the need to “equip them with certain skillsets that they did not have when they went in or improve on what they have so that when they come out of prison, having served their time, they are in a better position to move on with their lives.”