By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive yesterday called for all Fox Hill Prison inmates to be placed in a mandatory work programme that would finance their incarceration, so that the funds to finance their jailing do not fall into a “blackhole”.
Edison Sumner, who is also a member of the Parole and Re-entry Steering Committee (PRSC), told Tribune Business that the issue of re-offending by released inmates must be addressed, with one potential deterrent being to ensure they are engaged in productive work.
The Ministry of National Security projects that 95 per cent of incarcerated criminals are expected to re-enter society over the next 10 years, with statistics indicating that 45 per cent of persons housed at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) are on remand.
“It costs the Government, as we understand, in excess of $20,000 per person annually to house inmates at the Bahamas Corrections facility,” Mr Sumner said.
“One of the proposals that I am actually in the process of writing now, as part of the committee looking at the paroles and probation programme, is that we should make it a requirement that everyone join a work programme; that each of the inmates should be should be required to work in the program and be paid the minimum wage.
“Out of that, the Government is going to deduct the cost of the incarceration - the cost of meals, accommodations, electricity and the rest of it. The balance due to them could be awarded when they are released. At least the money is not being put into a blackhole.”
Mr Sumner’s comments came on the heels of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report, which shows that the Bahamas leads the entire Caribbean on economic losses stemming from crime, losing $434 million or almost 5 per cent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) to the scourge.
The report found that the Bahamas also incurred one of the high costs in income foregone as a result of the incarcerated prison population at Fox Hill, the IDB estimating this as equivalent to 0.35 per cent of GDP - around $30-$40 million - as result of inmates not being engaged in productive work.
Adding this to the 0.3 per cent of GDP spent by the Government on running Fox Hill prison, the report found the Bahamas was spending 0.65 per cent of its annual economic output on incarceration - a proportion that was the “second highest loss” in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
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