A invoice designed to deliver sweeping modifications to the nation’s strategy to jail administration and contraband enforcement has been handed in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Prime Minister and Minister for Nationwide Safety, Dr Terrance Drew, introduced the Jail (Modification) Invoice, 2025 earlier than the Nationwide Meeting on Thursday, Could 15, calling it a essential response to fashionable safety threats and the necessity for safer correctional amenities.
The laws, which amends the decades-old Jail Act, introduces harsher penalties for anybody caught smuggling banned objects into His Majesty’s Jail.
Below the brand new legislation, fines have elevated dramatically from EC$1,000 to EC$50,000, and the utmost jail sentence has been prolonged from six months to 10 years.
Along with the stiffer penalties, the invoice additionally expands the definition of contraband to incorporate cellphones, SIM playing cards, knives, and medicines—a mirrored image of rising considerations about organized felony exercise inside jail partitions.
Prime Minister Dr Drew spoke forcefully in assist of the amendments, saying, “A protected jail is a part of our total citizen safety agenda.” He pressured the federal government’s give attention to creating not only a safer jail atmosphere, but in addition one conducive to rehabilitation.
“These modifications will make our jail safer, and they’ll assist to cease any nefarious actions behind bars,” Dr. Drew mentioned. “The one actions we wish behind bars, Madame Speaker, are actions of rehabilitation that might enhance the opportunity of their profitable reintegration into our society.”
As a part of that dedication, the federal government plans to introduce extra progressive rehabilitative initiatives, with the ELEVATE Programme recognized as a central pillar in supporting inmates’ private development and preparation for all times after incarceration.
The passage of the Jail (Modification) Invoice, 2025 marks a serious step within the authorities’s broader efforts to modernize the felony justice system and improve public security throughout Saint Kitts and Nevis.
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