MNS Disorders in Guyana's Jails, 1825 to the present day

This project will research a critical but entirely neglected aspect of the prison system in Guyana, which certainly contributes to violence and instability: the definition, extent, experience and treatment of MNS disorders among inmates and the people who work with them. A UK-Guyana team will co-create new academic perspectives from Economic and Social History and Criminology, and use them to produce policy-relevant materials on mental health, cognitive impairment, addiction and substance abuse among prisoners and prison officers. The research will be shared with the project's partner, the Guyana Prison Service, which has an appetite for change and is seeking to effect transformations in prisoner well-being, health and education, during a time of unprecedented penal crisis. The project will not only model a new interdisciplinary way of working in this field, it will impact on prisoner and officer well-being and education, and on the rehabilitation of inmates.

The project's perspective is historical, social and cultural. It covers the period from 1825, when the British opened the colony's first jail in Georgetown, to the present day, following Guyana's independence in 1966. It is rooted in the hypothesis that the existence of MNS disorders in jails today can be traced back to the British colonial period, and that they cannot be disconnected from the country's history as a sugar colony that employed and controlled indigenous people (Amerindians), enslaved Africans and indentured Indian labourers. Empire created particular forms of trauma, shaped demography and religious practice, and instituted patterns of population control including through institutionalisation. We seek to render this history actively part of the process of change, by connecting new historical work to new criminological research on Guyana since independence. We are especially interested in assessing and evaluating different definitions and management regimes for people afflicted with MNS disorders in Guyana's jails, among the colony/ country's multi-ethnic and multi-religious population of indigenous, African and Asian descent, and including women and juveniles.

Guyana has serious resource constraints; in terms of GDP it is the second poorest country (after Haiti) in the southern hemisphere. Following the destruction of the country's largest jail during a prison riot in 2017, the challenges facing Guyana's prison system are unparalleled in the Caribbean region. This project is urgent and timely. The research team will conduct research on colonial-era and post-1966 archives and records, and conduct focus groups, workshop and interviews with prison personnel, communities living near prisons, and prisoners' families. The project seeks to enhance academic, practitioner and public understanding of MNS disorders in the jails context; build robust relationships between academics, practitioners and policy makers; and stimulate behavioural change among key actors. Its impacts will be to enhance prison security, improve the administration of criminal justice, and respect prisoner well-being, rights and equality, whilst protecting the public from people deemed 'dangerous'.

WHO WILL BENEFIT:
Following a pilot study, this project has been co-created by PI Anderson and Co-I Ifill, at the universities of Leicester and Guyana, in partnership with the Guyana Prison Service. Non-academic engagement and impact in Guyana is embedded in the entire project design, research programme, and dissemination strategy. With this in mind, we identified categories of beneficiary, in the pilot study. In this more developed project, we will engage:

i. The Guyana Prison Service, including senior officers, frontline officers, and medical personnel.
ii. The Guyana Prison Service Sentence Management Board, including its two sub-boards focused on prison visiting and training.
iii. Staff at the National Psychiatric Hospital, which receives patients from New Amsterdam jail.
iv. The Guyana Ministry for Health (Mental Health Department).
v. The Ministry of Social Protection, which given limited provision in the Prison Service engages in jails welfare activity.
vi. Prisoners and their families.
vii. Communities living in proximity to Guyana's jails.
viii. NGOs engaged in work with the Prison Service.
ix. UK Ministry of Justice, HM Inspector of Prisons and HMP Leicester.
x. Other Caribbean (CARICOM) countries engaged in crime and justice reform.

HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT:
In the pilot study, we identified mechanisms for ensuring the economic, social and welfare benefits of this research. The research will impact on our beneficiaries by producing:

i. Enhanced understanding of MNS disorders in Guyana's jails.
ii. The opportunity to implement new MNS disorders policies in Guyana's jails, for inmates and the people who look after them.
iii. Improved training for Guyana's jails personnel at all levels of the prison hierarchy.
iv. Improved attention to Guyanese prisoner well-being, rights and equality.
v. Greater awareness of Guyana's jails in the UK and wider Caribbean.
vi. Improved sensitivity to management of MNS disorders in multi-cultural UK and Caribbean prison populations.

WHAT WILL BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT THEY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BENEFIT:
The mechanisms to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this research will be our organization of:

i. An inaugural workshop in Guyana with the Guyana Prison Service, and other invited stakeholders, to set out the aims of the project and fully ground it in the local context.
ii. Two 'Ground Truthing' Workshops (see above, Academic Beneficiaries). Guyana Prison Service representatives and HMP Leicester's governor will attend both events. The Guyana event will also include other Guyanese stakeholders. (See Pathways to Impact).
iii. Five community focus groups in the districts surrounding Guyana's prisons: Georgetown, Lusignan, Mazaruni (inc. juvenile establishment Sibley Hall), New Amsterdam (inc. female prison), and Timehri.
iv. Three training workshops on MNS disorders with prison officers.
v. Two workshops on MNS disorders for the families of affected prisoners nearing release, one in Georgetown and the other in another location to be decided following needs identified in the community focus groups.
vi. A reciprocal visit to Guyana and the UK, by the Guyana Prison Service and the Governor of HMP Leicester, to examine and discuss the manifestation and treatment of MNS disorders.
vii. 30 paid monthly slots on national state radio and Radio HJTV, three articles for The Staebrok News (newspaper), 30 blogs.
viii. A public lecture delivered by PI Anderson and Co-I Ifill.
ix. The production of two policy briefs, one evaluating current MNS treatment regimes, and making recommendations, and the other setting out enhanced training for prisons and associated welfare personnel.
x. The delivery of training materials for prison officers and cadets.
xi. A Westminster Policy Breakfast.
xii. The delivery of project materials to the Guyana Prison Service's counterparts in CARICOM nations.