The Minister of National Security, the Hon. Wayne Munroe spoke to reporters outside of Cabinet about the government’s efforts to reform the Bahamas Department of Corrections.
“We hope to, in the New Year, move away from this concept that when you are sent to prison you get four months off your sentence automatically and you never have to account for it. So if you get out after eight months and you commit a crime the first day after you get out you never account for the four months that you were given off. We’re going to be seeking to introduce a system of parole where you will be accountable for every day that you’re sentenced even if you get out four months early if you commit an offence on that day you will go back to prison to serve those four months cause you’ve decided that you don’t want to behave.”
According to Munroe, it is aimed to have draft legislation our for consultation this month. “It would require a parole and reentry act that was drafted – there’s a draft that was drafted after the committee reported in 2016 with the change of government it was not pursued. The committee was chaired by Archdeacon Gomez and Rev. Patrick Paul it did a lot of work looking at systems in the US and in the Caribbean islands around us. It’s a product that is at the point where it can be rolled out. You cannot, in my mind, get four months off and not be accountable for it once you get out.”
