ANTIGUA CONFERENCE SEEKS ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION

Regional experts associated with probation services will gather in
Antigua next week for a workshop that will seek to devise
alternatives to incarceration.

The conference is set to run from 26 - 28 Nov., at the Jolly Beach
Resort. The conference is organised by the Caribbean Drug Abuse
Research Institute and supported by DrugScope UK and the University
of Kent, UK. The workshop is also supported, in part, by a grant from
the UK government's Department for International Development.

The main focus of the workshop will be looking at diverting low level
and petty offenders from incarceration and utilising community
service as an alternative. Several local practitioners from the
Probation Office and other governmental and non-governmental
organisations will form part of the Antiguan delegation.
Approximately 30 overseas participants are expected on island.

Head of the Probation Unit, Junie Ruddy, said the conference is a
follow-up to a local conference held here earlier this year, which
sought to develop alternatives to incarceration.

During the three-day conference, delegates will seek to set up
successful alternatives, sentencing regimes, involving the community
in identifying community-based sentencing projects, using
community-based organisations to monitor offenders in the community
and identify the special needs of vulnerable individuals who become
offenders. An official opening ceremony will be held on Monday and
Minister of Housing and Social Transformation Hilson Baptiste, under
whose portfolio the Probation Unit falls, will deliver remarks and
declare the workshop open.