GOVERNMENT has entrusted the preventive maintenance of the country's penal institution, HMP Dodds, in St Philip to the Barbados Correction Maintenance Corporation (BCMC) for the next 25 years.

Deputy Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who is also attorney-general and minister of home affairs, yesterday signed the contract for Barbados, while senior vice-president and director Seamus Kelly initialled for BCMC, in the ministry's conference room.

The company was set up to provide preventative maintenance for all major structures, machinery, equipment and electronic security systems. The day-to-day operational-type preservation of the prison is the responsibility of the staff.

Triennially review

The arrangement comes up for review triennially, until the prison, in terms of such preventive upkeep, is handed back to Government; and, as Stuart said, "hopefully in the same pristine condition as it now is in".

Noting that the international authorities evaluated human rights by prison status and the treatment of inmates, Stuart said that physical conditions must be congenial for prisoner rehabilitation, which was the focus of incarceration in order to have them reintegrated into the wider society on release.

"Therefore, proper maintenance is vital in this equation," he said.

Kelly said "the signing of this preventative maintenance contract today is part of the facilities lease agreement between the Barbados Government and the Barbados Correction Maintenance Corporation for 25 years; both became effective in January this year".