The facility, which has six computers, including four donated by One Stop Computer Sales - a New Kingston firm - is equipped with a special interactive software to assist inmates to learn to read and write. The other two machines, which were already in use by the prison, were refurbished and installed in the computer centre.

"The facility that you see here was once the armoury. Next, it was used as a library. Now, it is a library and computer centre. This shows transformation and is a giant step in the right direction as it will enable inmates to better themselves for the job market when they leave here," said Major Richard Reese, the commissioner of corrections.

"Although there is a limited amount of work stations, we hope to maximise its use as we continue our rehabilitation programme," Major Reese said at the opening of the computer centre.

Kevin Wallen, the managing director of One Stop Computer Sales, said he was motivated to make the offer as he grew up under very trying circumstances in Jamaica. "I stopped going to school at 11, started living as a street child and sold newspapers in an attempt to make a living. If I had not got the opportunity to go to Canada and get a good education, I would probably be in prison today," he told the Observer.

"If as a nation we continue to allow people to go behind bars and come back out the same, we'll never be better as a society," he added.
Wallen also runs an educational programme at the South Camp Rehabilitation Centre in Kingston.

He said the cost of his donation to the prison was about $300,000, and he thanked housing developer New Era Homes, for partnering with his company by the air-conditioning unit for the computer centre.

Senator Kern Spencer, parliamentary secretary in the security ministry, thanked Wallen for his donation to the prison. "You have done an excellent job. I cannot overstate the importance of having the entire society educated and computer literate," he said.

Added Spencer: "We take the business of rehabilitation very seriously as this can reduce the level of recidivism substantially".

Earlier in the day, 21 inmates at the Fort Augusta Prison graduated from a United Nations Development Programme's 'change agent action project' called "Operation Homeward Bound".

Each inmate did more than 150 hours looking at condom use, motivation, parenting skills, domestic violence, conflict resolution, stress management, drug abuse and the impact of HIV/AIDS.

"We are training long-term inmates as peer facilitators for them to pass on this knowledge of life skills to short-term inmates and those about to leave the facility," said Winsome Keane-Dawes, officer for the St Catherine HIV/AIDS Education Programme.

There are 299 inmates at the Fort Augusta Women's Prison.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20031216T210000-0500_53121_OBS_WOMEN_S_PRISON_GETS_COMPUTER_CENTRE.asp