Ms Kona (not her real name) is a 19 year old young mother of one child. She was arrested and convicted in the magistrate court for shoplifting and was given a suspended sentence with a condition to attend a NICRO programme.
The main challenge that Ms. Kona faced at the time was that she had no steady means of employment. Ms. Kona was assisted by the NICRO social worker and taught how to develop a good CV. Ms. Kona drafted a new CV for herself, and on the basis of her efforts, she received three requests to come in for job interviews. Two of the three interviewers offered her work, and she now works as a sales person.
Ms. Kona is now able to take care of herself and her child. She is also saving a little money every month as she plans to go back to school next year. If Ms. Kona has been sent to prison or had merely received a suspended sentence without any NICRO component, she would have been left in the same situation she was in when she first committed the offence. If we want to see offenders stop committing crime, we have to revisit the way we use sentencing as a punishment.
Instead of believing that the criminal record itself is punishment enough to deter the person from future crime, let the sentence include mandatory work with a service provider such as NICRO. A sentence like this does require more effort from the magistrate, but in the end it is more likely to stop the problem from becoming worse. Many of the offenders we work with simply need help. Many of them are struggling to cope with very difficult circumstances. There is no reason why the punishment cannot also be beneficial to the person, and in the end, to the benefit of society as well.
Regan Jules-Macquet
NICRO Project Manager
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The contents of the blogs, the opinions expressed and the points made in the blogs are not those of NICRO and do not represent any official NICRO position. Furthermore, NICRO does not assume any responsibility or liability for opinions or statements made in the blogs. The blogs are edited simply for grammar and typing errors. On occasion names of people have been removed.
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