Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der says the Gov­ern­ment will rein­tro­duce a pro­gramme re­quir­ing con­vict­ed pris­on­ers sen­tenced to hard labour to par­tic­i­pate in pub­lic clean-up ex­er­cis­es as part of its crime pre­ven­tion strat­e­gy.

An­nounc­ing the ini­tia­tive dur­ing a com­mu­ni­ty clean-up ex­er­cise by work­ers of the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces (NPUPS) in Tu­na­puna yes­ter­day, Alexan­der said in­mates serv­ing hard labour sen­tences would once again be de­ployed to as­sist in main­tain­ing pub­lic spaces, ar­gu­ing that the cur­rent sys­tem does not re­flect the true mean­ing of hard labour.

He said, “You know what is hard labour in the jail right now? A man smok­ing, on his phone and on the in­ter­net and all these things, that’s not hard labour.”