Caribbean : Less Imprisonment, More Rehabilitation and Reintegration

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One Caribbean Nation.


Study: Pre-trial detentions a problem


WASHINGTON – A new Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study has highlighted ways to increase public safety in the Caribbean by focusing on reducing pre-trial detentions and expanding rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for incarcerated people.

The Washington, DC-based financial institution says the report analyses survey data collected from both sentenced and remanded individuals in six Caribbean countries from 2016-2019: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In these countries, the report finds that the average prison population is 93 per cent male and the average age of inmates is 33 years old.

The study says that unconvicted prisoners constitute a large portion of the prison population in the Caribbean, and that these pre-trial detainees spend an average of 2.5 to 4 years in prison before sentencing, “often in worse conditions than those already convicted of a crime”.

Individuals in pre-trial detention were also found to have experienced higher levels of victimisation and violence compared to sentenced individuals.

The study says that pre-trial detainees reported higher rates of victimisation in almost all countries under study, except for Barbados and Suriname. (CMC)

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