CORRECTIONAL officers are calling for better working conditions and more resources which, they say, will go a far way in assisting them to meet their mandate to rehabilitate the people in their care, some of whom are hardened criminals.

Citing a lack of proper bedding, poor state of restrooms for both inmates and warders, decrepit cells, rust falling from grilles, cracked and leaking ceilings, and grungy walls which have not been painted in years, one correctional officer, who is stationed at a juvenile facility and who requested anonymity, said these conditions make the rehabilitation process that more difficult.

“Environment plays a role in your thinking also. We know that… yuh cyaan have dem [inmates] inna some dilapidated cell and yuh a say bout you a rehabilitate them… Me carry [an inmate] go to the classroom and have a counselling session and when you leave there you a go inna one dilapidated cell?” he related to the Jamaica Observer, noting that this kind of environment is not conducive to the effective delivery of rehabilitation interventions.

The corporal, who has been with the correctional services for more than 20 years, argued that no matter how “bad” the inmates are, they are supposed to be provided with basic necessities, such as a bed. Yet, “sometimes they have to sleep on the iron, not even sheets [we have]”.

“It’s a disgrace what is happening… Money short, yes, but we must can do better — even for us working in those conditions. If you come and see some of the cell dem or dorm weh dem [wards] haffi be put in, anybody would say it is a disgrace,” he said.

“I know if public health came into my institution… they would want certain areas closed — and officers have to be working in it,” he added.

The warder noted that the issue of limited resources often leads to discord among the inmates, who then end up fighting each other over those inadequate resources.

“When wards or inmates get angry we haffi try de-escalate that. When an inmate can’t get a bed, him steal it from another one, him bad up a next one and take it. When him cyaan get a sheet, him a go bad up another one… we have to go in there and be judge and jury regarding that. That isn’t right either, because it’s one sheet and one bed,” he said.

He lamented that this is the type of environment correctional officers endure “24/7”, adding that “day and night, inmate a bawl out fi dis and dat”.

“That is why we have a high attrition rate. As officers come in, them leave — part of it is the pay and the conditions we work under,” the warder shared.

He said that even though he could leave Jamaica for more suitable working conditions, “it’s the love of the job, it’s the love of my country” that keeps him going back behind the prison walls each day.

The warder noted that despite such poor working conditions, correctional officers continue to carry out their duties with diligence.

“Persons are just looking at correctional officers as the persons behind the wall… but we provide the major security factor for the country. When you check it, one institution, maybe like a Tower Street [Adult Correctional Centre], we would have 1,700 inmates, and at the peak of it sometimes we would have had like 1,800 inmates or more.

“So, just looking at those figures and we would’ve had all that hard work to do to transform so many lives going back into society, and the ones who would’ve been given life sentences and so on and very long times in prison, we still work with them to get them to a level where they can have a positive impact on their fellow inmates… which is another core function of rehabilitation,” he pointed out.

The warder said he also works hard to rehabilitate inmates, including those convicted of murder, to protect his friends and loved ones on the outside.

“When you are at prison these persons will get to know you but dem nuh know my family and friends, so if I don’t try my best to change them behind there, when they go out it can impact my friends or anybody out there,” he reasoned.

“As much as I cuss the system, if it’s even one you can reach out to, with the limited tools we have, to talk to him to try to get a change… try [to] change [his] mind.

“When you talk about [gangsters like Donald] ‘Zeeks’ [Phipps, Joel] Andem, [convicted murderer Adijah] ‘Vybz Kartel’ [Palmer], a we haffi deal with them, a we haffi take care of them…and we have to keep them in there,” he added.

Correctional officers are tasked with providing inmates with a relevant, structured and therapeutic environment to facilitate their rehabilitation and empowerment to become peaceful, responsible and productive members of society.

This is a duty, they say, they carry out tirelessly despite the challenges.

“When an offender is convicted and comes to the institution, the correctional officer is now left to deal with all of those social ills that that person would’ve come with and we would also have to be dealing with rehabilitation, trying to prevent that person from reoffending, also to keep that recidivism level at the lowest,” said another correctional officer who has been serving for more than 15 years and who also asked not to be named.

“So we have to be mothers, fathers — you name it — while at the same time protecting our very own society from some of these very same individuals from escape and all these things,” he said, adding that correctional officers have in their care “some of the most dangerous offenders in the country”.

“If one of those persons probably gets back into society before their prescribed time of release, then mayhem can be caused,” he said.

The warder said many people are unaware of the myriad roles correctional officers play as they seek to turn offenders’ lives around. Among those duties is a risk assessment to determine the offender’s propensity to reoffend, and to ascertain the treatment to which he/she will be exposed when the inmate first enters a correctional facility.

They also serve as counsellors as well as teachers who prepare inmates to sit Caribbean Examinations Council subjects and pursue university degrees.

“Correctional officers are trained as medical orderlies to provide interim care in place of doctors. If the doctor is not readily available, for instance, and somebody feels ill, they would’ve provided that interim care before the person is either sent to the hospital or is seen by the doctor,” he added.

He also shared that when an inmate dies, the correctional officer has to go to the police station to make the necessary reports and provide documentation relating to the inmate’s death. Additionally, the warder is required to go to the morgue to oversee the autopsy.

He also said that when an inmate is sentenced, a correctional officer calculates the exact day he/she is to be released from prison, and they also process extradition requests for inmates to be handed over to other countries.

Tailor shops, where inmates are taught to make uniforms for government employees, including correctional officers; mechanical engineering shops where inmates learn to repair government and department vehicles; woodwork shops at which inmates make furniture for the Correctional Services Department and carry out repairs, are all operated by warders, he said.

Additionally, correctional officers operate the bakery and the farms within the prisons, overseeing the process of self-sustainability.

The warder further lamented that people have the misguided view that correctional officers are mere high school dropouts with little or no qualifications. This, he argued, is not the case, insisting that were a survey to be done it would find that quite a number of correctional officers have degrees, diplomas, and other qualifications.

“Correctional officers are very skilled persons — and that can stand up to scrutiny. For me, I have a degree, I have a diploma, I have seven subjects, I have many certifications even internationally and locally so it just goes to show, when persons paint a particular picture of correctional officers it creates a scar for [them],” he said.

He insisted that correctional officers have been doing an excellent job in keeping offenders safely contained, thereby contributing to public safety.

“You hear about how many persons are escaping from police lock-up? When last have you heard of a prison escape? That shows the kind of security that the correctional officers are bringing to the table. That shows the level of professional security that we are bringing to the table. That shows you that correctional officers have control of their security apparatus — it shows that correctional officers are doing well in terms of rehabilitation,” he said.

He acknowledged that there is always a need for more rehabilitation programmes and that the prison facilities are not ideal for 100 per cent rehabilitation, “because the infrastructure itself needs development, it is dilapidated so it’s like we are patching the holes and going through”.

He stressed, however, that he and his colleagues are doing the best they can and are producing the best from what they have.

“There is no perfect system but correctional officers are doing a good job because we are balancing the scale with rehabilitation and security,” he insisted.

He admitted as well that there is corruption in the prison system, but said, “We try our best to deal with that. I am not going to say that we are all clean but we try our best to root out those persons out of the system, and you can’t use that against us. I can say most officers are clean.”

The Department of Correctional Services has 16 probation offices, seven adult correctional centres and four juvenile centres.

Over the years, successive governments have promised to build a new state-of-the-art prison, but this is yet to be realised.

Up to Saturday there was no response from the Department of Correctional Services when the Sunday Observer tried to get a comment.