The need for ad­di­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties to ad­e­quate­ly ac­com­mo­date women de­por­tees and for­mer pris­on­ers were one of sev­er­al is­sues raised at a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny of a pre-re­lease pro­gramme for in­mates of the Gold­en Grove Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, Arou­ca, on Wednes­day.

The pro­gramme which aims to pro­vide vo­ca­tion­al train­ing and life-skills for the in­mates to pre­pare them for life af­ter re­lease was one of sev­er­al ini­tia­tives in­volv­ing the TT Prison Ser­vice and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tion (NGO) Vi­sion on Mis­sion.

Dur­ing her fea­ture ad­dress Vi­sion on Mis­sion’s CEO Giselle Chance said as the num­ber of fe­male de­por­tees re­turn­ing to T&T is ex­pect­ed to in­crease, there was ur­gent need for suf­fi­cient fa­cil­i­ties to house them.