Ramona Biholar, a human rights law expert, undertook research funded by the European Union, for the civil society organization, Stand Up for Jamaica, focused on the barriers in Jamaica to the social reintegration of adult ex-inmates. Biholar conducted interviews with both adult male and female offenders discharged from Tower Street, St. Catherine and the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centres.

The study was featured in the Jamaica Gleaner in an article titled, “Advocacy Group Lobbies To Remove BarriersTo Reintegration Of Ex-Convicts” http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170703/advocacy-group-lobbies-remove-barriers-reintegration-ex-convicts.

The study found that ex-inmates often face a range of barriers that impeded their re-adjustment tolife outside the prison upon their release. These include unemployment, homelessness, estrangement from family, friends and social networks to inadequate means of subsistence, insufficient psycho-social support, and an overall lack of support services infrastructure. These factors cause and reinforce their social marginalization.

Furthermore, Jamaica lacks comprehensive legislative and policy responses that take into account the realities of ex-inmates. As a result, institutionalized discriminatory practices facilitate the emergence of impoverished social groups and increased criminality. The vulnerability experienced by ex-inmates’ makes the society on the whole vulnerable to recidivism and poverty.

This study concludes that the barriers faced by ex-inmates upon release must be a public policy concern. Policy makers must place ex-inmates’ social reintegration at the heart of crime prevention strategies as well as strategies for poverty alleviation.