Criminal Justice Board meeting with Commissioner of Police, Robert Clark in the foreground and Gov-ernor Julia Crouch fourth from the right.
ANGUILLA--The meeting of the Anguilla Criminal Justice Board held this week focused on rehabilita-tion and safeguarding. Several speakers made presentations, including Hyacinth Bradley, Community Services Planner, and newly appointed Michael Douglas, Youth Crime and Violence Prevention Pro-gramme Officer, who are leading the charge to address the root causes of violence among at-risk children and youth. They are providing support to families as well as working closely with schools, parents, churches, community development centres and groups. Their mission is clear: to prevent, divert and rehabilitate those affected by or involved in crime. This year, their strategy focuses on Prevention, Intervention and Interception, ensuring early action and impactful solutions to create safer, stronger communities.
John Wilcox described the prison as a “revolving door” with offenders coming in and out. He sug-gested this could be halted by improving education and training for prisoners. The construction of a prison workshop is planned to provide prisoners with practical skills and qualifications, making them more employable on release and less likely to reoffend.
Kiesha Gumbs-Bibby, Social Development Planner, gave an update at the meeting, on Child Safe-guarding training that was provided to teachers in all primary and secondary schools in Anguilla last year with plans to extend training to community and voluntary groups in 2025.
Dale Morgan and Janille Brown from the Joint Emergency Services Control Room confirmed the control room is now fully operational 24 hours a day and taking up to 100 calls a day. Plans for 2025 include expanding the response to support the roll out of Electronic Monitoring and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
