KINGSTON, Jamaica — As part of efforts to reduce the rate of recidivism in Jamaica, 467 incarcerated individuals received certification in a skill of their choice between 2020 and 2023.

They were certified in hair braiding, masonry, carpentry, and tiling, among others, and two individuals went on to receive their associate degree in business administration.

This was revealed by Minister of Education, Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, as she piloted the Bill on the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act, which was debated and passed in the Senate on Friday. The legislation was previously passed in the House of Representatives last December.

Morris Dixon shared that the initiative was a collaboration involving the Ministry of National Security and Peace, HEART/NSTA Trust and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), working together with first-time offenders to train them in income-earning skills.

“There is so much value in all our people, and I am proud that the policy of this administration is to empower the people of this country. Their lives do not end at the prison walls,” Morris Dixon declared.

Regarding the decision to amend the legislation to allow some persons who ran afoul of the law to get a fresh start, the education minister said, “There is also now work to be done to help those who made a bad choice and now wish to take the straight and narrow path.”

She noted that recidivism is rarely driven by a single bad choice after release.

“In fact, it is usually the predictable result of unmet criminogenic needs and re-entry barriers that stack up fast: unstable housing, weak job prospects and low skills, untreated substance-use and mental-health conditions, disrupted family and pro-social networks that can turn minor noncompliance into re-incarceration,” said Morris Dixon.

She cited that the scale of the challenge is well documented in many countries, with the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics’ nine-year follow-up of people released from state prisons in 2005, finding that a large majority were arrested again within the follow-up period.

Declaring the Government’s Plan Secure Jamaica to be “the most effective national security strategy in the history of Jamaica”, Morris Dixon said it addresses recidivism by building rehabilitation and reintegration into the national security architecture.

“It is important to note, on the official record, that we do not treat incarceration as the end of our security intervention,” she said.

Morris Dixon outlined that the Ministry of National Security explicitly includes a “rehabilitation and redemption” pillar aimed at improving community reintegration for offenders and access to support services for deportees. It is delivered through agencies like the DCS and citizen security programmes.

The minister shared that within DCS, rehabilitation starts at intake with risk-and-needs assessment and individualised case management, followed by structured programming (academic and vocational training, psychosocial support, life skills), designed explicitly to reduce recidivism and strengthen employability and reintegration outcomes.

“In parallel, Jamaica’s restorative justice infrastructure supports diversion and conflict resolution at the community level,” she said.

— Lynford Simpson