THE introduction of conjugal visits for prison inmates and new ways to allow them to keep contact with their family members are among several revolutionary suggestions in a proposed National Correctional Services Policy for Jamaica tabled as a white paper in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

In a major proposal, the white paper says efforts should be made to explore an appropriate mechanism for the introduction of conjugal visits, where there would be designated periods in which an offender client (prison inmate) is allowed to be in private with their legal spouse — wife or husband.

“The visit allows contact, including sexual relations, between an offender client and a visitor. The key aims of conjugal visits include preserving an offender client’s family ties, promoting the offender client’s reintegration into society on release, curbing recidivism, and lessening violence within the correctional centre,” the white paper proposed.

In addition, the policy seeks to expand ways of allowing an incarcerated individual to keep in contact with their family by implementing secure video visiting and phone call programmes within the prisons.

It also seeks to facilitate, as far as possible, the important parent and child relationship by establishing improved visitation facilities and procedures.

“The Government recognises that, as far as possible, every effort should be made not to cause a child to suffer unduly because of the incarceration of either of their parents,” the white paper says.

The white paper follows a November 2020 Cabinet decision to develop a comprehensive Offender Management Policy for the correctional services based on what was believed to be a high level of recidivism.

An estimated average annual recidivism rate of 41 per cent was recorded in Jamaica between 2016 and 2021.

The recidivism rate measures the tendency of people to reoffend after being released from prison or completing their sentence. Some studies have placed the recidivism rate worldwide at between 20 per cent and 60 per cent, putting Jamaica at the high end during the period.

In the white paper, the aim is described as an attempt to “establish the Government’s commitments and priorities in strengthening the management, rehabilitation, and reintegration of offender clients [inmates] of the Correctional Services.

It says the policy is designed to reduce the level of recidivism with a whole-of-society approach.

The policy has among its major aims: Addressing the overcrowding and poor infrastructure of the island’s prisons, reducing the gang influence inside correctional institutions, reducing contraband and corruption inside the institutions, and providing more support for ex-prisoners to be reintegrated into the society, including support for their employment.

The white paper also proposes the development of a visitors’ guide that provides basic information on the rules and regulations that govern visits, through a variety of media on support services for families and signposting to specialist services.

It further proposed revised visitation policies in prisons to encourage and reinforce stable, consistent and scheduled in-person visits, and create a warm and suitable environment for friends and family members to interact with offender clients.

Other proposals include collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the Department of Correctional Services in restructuring the health-care system within the prisons with the aim of making it similar to that available in the community, and recruit and retain qualified medical professionals, including general practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, and substance abuse specialists to work in the prisons.

The proposals contained in the white paper are expected to be implemented over the next five years.