SMARTER NOT TOUGHER

Criminologist has her say on call for stiffer gun laws in Barbados

 

Barbados does not necessarily need tougher laws to address the pervasive problem of gun violence. What may be needed is enforcement of the existing laws, namely the Firearms Act.
 
Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit (CJRPU), Cheryl Willoughby noted the above, as she fielded questions from members of the media, during a break from the recently held Career Showcase for secondary school students, hosted by her Unit at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
 
“We have the Firearms Act already. We need to just have those things under that Act followed. Again, as a criminologist, laws only restrict behaviour, they don’t change behaviour and so, we may incarcerate a person for ten years for gun violence, but that does not prevent him from coming back out and recidivating and committing an even more serious offence. 
 
“So I think that in addition to stronger laws, we also need to have strong rehabilitation programmes,” Willoughby stated.
 
“We need to have opportunities for ex-offenders to reintegrate back into society properly, because right now, our recidivism rate is over 60 per cent. People are reoffending as early as six months after leaving prison, so it tells me that we need to either strengthen the programmes up there at the prison or we need to have systems in place at the community level, so that ex-offenders can reintegrate back into society,” she added.
 
Willoughby noted that her Unit conducted a study in relation to the reintegration of ex-offenders into society and the research shows that one of the barriers to re-integration is that of substance abuse.“We have a lot of persons up at (the prison) who are addicted to substances and you cannot treat substance abuse in six months, in a year. It is a long-term process,” she pointed out.“They have problems with having access to employment. Barbados is small and there is a stigma attached to incarceration. Once a criminal, always a criminal, that is the thinking of my fellow Barbadians. So it’s hard then for a person to come back out of prison and get themselves resettled in a career and family situation as well. They have no choice, but to go back on the block and get themselves back into criminal activity again,” the director suggested. (RSM)
 

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