Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts have wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to use in­mates serv­ing hard labour sen­tences to clean and main­tain pub­lic spaces, but say the ini­tia­tive must be built around re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, care­ful in­mate se­lec­tion, prop­er risk as­sess­ments and strong se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der an­nounced on Tues­day that in­mates sen­tenced to hard labour will soon be used to clean and main­tain pub­lic spaces as part of the Gov­ern­ment’s crime pre­ven­tion strat­e­gy.

Alexan­der said the ini­tia­tive would en­cour­age and sup­port pris­on­er re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion by al­low­ing in­mates to demon­strate pos­i­tive be­hav­iours be­fore be­ing rein­te­grat­ed in­to so­ci­ety.