As reported in the Guyana Times Newspaper

Centre to reform deportees, drugaddicts commissioned in Berbice

The Transitional House ( TTH ) – a rehabilitation and reintegration centre – was on Wednesday commissioned at Lot 31 Penitentiary Walk, New Amsterdam, Berbice. Speaking at the ceremony, Trevor Thomas, Permanent Secretary in the
Human Services Ministry, said that ministry was very much involved in the centre’s formation, and is interested in working with people.

“We have been advocating the need to work with social partners, “Thomas, who spoke widely on the interventions of the ministry in assisting vulnerable groups countrywide, declared. He was high in praise of the centre for the work it has been doing, and stressed the need for the ministry’s partnership with responsible social groups. Also present at the ceremony was Reintegration Project Assistant, International Organization for Migration ( IOM ) Guyana, Jermaine Grant, who talked about the work of the agency he represents, and its partnership with TTH. The facility, founded and operated by a deportee, Eskar Adams, commenced its first programme at Essex Street, New Amsterdam in February 2008. Over that time, some 346 persons have been re- integrated into society, recovering from issues ranging from incarceration, and substance abuse, to domestic abuse.

The facility has dealt with more than 2,000 cases since it opened its doors to the public, with support coming from Help and Shelter and Comforting Hearts. Co- founder Karen Gomes, who is attached to Help and Shelter, plays a significant role in the operation of the institution.

New Amsterdam businessman Ramesh Maraj donated a computer to the centre for the project, where school children would come for help with their assignments.

The Deportee Dilemma

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER EDITORIAL

In the newspaper business it is rather trite to point out that it is the unusual that usually makes the news: dog bites man – ho-hum; man bites dog – news!! After more than a decade of anguished complaints by Caribbean leaders about criminal deportees from the developed countries – mainly the US, Canada and the UK – one particularly gruesome crime by a deportee made the headlines across the USA.
The AP article screamed, “Caribbean crime wave linked to US deportations: – The crime was horrifying enough — a nightclub owner, hacked to death with a machete, was found buried in pieces. But what really outraged people was that the accused killer had been deported from the U.S. to his native Grenada as a convicted felon.”
President Jagdeo has been one of the Caribbean leaders that has been in the forefront of criticising the practice which began in earnest after the US passed legislation in 1996, to deport individuals that were either residents or illegals, convicted of offences ranging from murder to shoplifting as well as low-level drug infractions back to their country of origin.
The number of deportees from the US has been climbing steadily upwards since the program was initiated in 1996. Statistics released last year by their Department of Homeland Security revealed that the number of criminal deportees sent back to the Caribbean between the decade of 1999 and 2008 totalled 50,589 – that is an average of 5,000 annually.
Guyana’s average was 1,728, which if the circumstances were reversed, would be like the US having to absorb 840,000 convicts every year. Last year Minister Rohee revealed that in the decade 1996-2007, criminal deportees from all sources to Guyana averaged 245 annually. The Caribbean’s complaints are not hard to understand.
On one hand, the developed countries, with their magnificent infrastructure and institutions drain this underdeveloped region of most of its skilled manpower – doctors, nurses, etc – but have no compunction in dumping criminals here that in most instances were inducted into a life of crime by their culture.
To compound the irony, the criminals are only deported after they have served their sentences in US jails – that is, after they have graduated from some of the best criminal training institutions in the world.
While some studies have shown that just over half of the deportees may be simply individuals that have committed some violation or other of their immigration status, the remainder inevitably contain some hard-core criminal types of various stripes – especially connected to drug trafficking.
These criminals have introduced into formerly very peaceful, backwater societies, the mind boggling violent modus operandi that pervades the criminal fraternity of the US.
It is certainly not a coincidence that the upsurge in Caribbean deportees from the US since 1996 has been tracked by a corresponding rise in drug crimes in these countries. The US and the other developed countries are simply exporting their problems into countries with the least capabilities of dealing with them.
After direct complaints at the highest levels, first with Bush then Obama and with their second tier leaders such as Secretary of State Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, there has been some response in the last two years. But it has not really dealt with the structural contradictions of a country’s environment creating criminals and then dumping them into countries that are in no way responsible.
Last year the US assigned $3 million to fund a pilot program managed by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration to help reintegrate deportees in Guyana, Haiti and the Bahamas. The Ministry of Home Affairs should announce to the nation, how the program has fared.
In the meantime, it would appear that the US does not take the Caribbean’s complaint seriously. In the AP’s report quoted above, it was revealed: “U.S. officials say privately that the deportations cannot be blamed for the increase in violent crime, but declined to discuss the issue on the record, saying the U.S. does not want to hurt relations with Caribbean governments with which it cooperates on other issues.”

LOT 2 ESSEX STREET, NEW AMSTERDAM, BERBICE

Email- eskaradams@gmail.com

Tel-592-333-2760 (cell 592-614-2742)

Dear Friends,

When an Addict seeks recovery and is rehabilitated, he/she leaves the center with hopes and dreams, but usually has to return to a home situation that is not conducive to his or her recovery. These situations expose them to ridicule and insults that they are not ready or prepared for.

However, we at Transitional House seek to change that by providing living accommodation in a semi-protective and supportive environment for the clients newly discharged from treatment and rehabilitation centers so as to facilitate their re-integration into the society.

Nature of service

• Providing accommodation to the discharged from voluntary drug treatment centers, prisons, psychologically/ sexually abused and those deported who have no family to sign for their release.
• Providing training to the residents in life skills, social skills, and job skills to facilitate their integration into the community.
• Organizing various groups and social/community activities with the residents to develop their interests in healthy hobbies and productive lifestyles.
• 24 hours care with at least one staff member present at all times.
• Special assistance to persons who are HIV/AIDS positive.

· Workshops in various schools targeting youths through drug prevention therapy.

You can Contact: Ms. Karen Gomes Mr. Eskar Adams

592-629-0815 592-614-2742

Guyana, like most countries, has been plagued with the problem of drug abuse. This fact can be substantiated in the prison of focus. Since most of those incarcerated are as a result of drug related incidences.

The New Amsterdam prison was chosen. This institution has employed a behavioral specific learning intent/procedure, which is, expected learning on the part of the client/prisoner; which in turn is expressed in measurable terms. The prisoner knows what is expected (generally) and the criteria for determining how the goal should be met.

Since this is the norm in the institutions, and since our first interest is the client, the focus will be on the end result, rather than the process. It will be based on the performance by our definition, must be observable, measurable and specific.

The main trust of this focus is the Female Inpatient Treatment and Transitional Program, although this facility is targeted to begin in September 2009, as outlined, work however must be started in the months prior to the opening day by staff. This includes the following:

1. The sensitization of the community members by counselors, in their capacity of the educators, describing the transitional program and how it works, all in an informed and easy- to – understand way. Gaining the approval and confidence.

2. The training of community leaders and elders, highlighting the complementary roles of community leadership and those of the professionals. Additionally, discussing the impact of addiction and family, thus the community and how family and community can be of help in the treatment and transitional process, also to devise to capture and maximize benefits of each.
3. As continuing agents of intervention in the times of crisis, amongst drug users in the community and prisons systems, employing specifics techniques when necessary, or which best suits the setting. This would serve to attract future clients to the facility. Conflict management.
4. In the prison outreach, to strengthen the existing roles. In the targeting of female prisoners prior to their release presenting them with (a) initial intervention; and (b) to combine clinical knowledge and experience to produce a transition model that works. Synthesis.
5. To continue working closely with the Social Service department, Probation department, the ministry of health and other existing drug facilities (a) to foster our female facility known and the services offered, to establish a network of support care and referral.(2) to foster knowledge sharing for effective inpatient and outpatient treatment for maximum recovery results.
6. The above would serve to engage potential clients to the facility through seminars, meetings (both formal and informal) in continued collaborative efforts between regular prison staff and those of the female facility.