By Sanna Camara

Board Chairman of Insight Training Center has said that the graduation of 50 inmates in vocational and skill courses is a worthy celebration, especially considering that these are men and women, who, under difficult circumstances, made a profound moral decision to rebuild themselves from prison.

48 of the 50 graduands were inmates, while two were prison officers who enrolled in various nationally-accredited courses in TVET,  and having satisfied all requirements to be certified in construction, plumbing, ICT, tailoring, solar and electrical installation. On Wednesday this week, they received their certificates at Mile 2 central Prisons in Banjul.

For Professor Cherno Omar Barry, there is no greater construction project than making such a profound moral decision while serving time in prison, describing the programme as “a quiet revolution” as it explains how a nation understands justice.

“Not punishment alone, but correction. Not confinement alone, but rehabilitation,” he stylishly phrased, saying it is not about merely serving time but making time count.

“A man who once wore prison clothes now carries a toolbox. A man once called offender is now called electrician. Another dreams of opening his own workshop… that is not charity. That is social transformation. That is nation-building,” he said.

Prof. Barry says taking into account what has been happening with prison reforms in The Gambia today, he dares say that the future prison system must be judged not only by security, but by how many lives it restores.

“A prison without rehabilitation is merely storage,” he said, arguing that a correctional institution with education, skills and dignity becomes an engine of renewal.

“Our dream must be bold,” he added: “That our prisons become truly correctional centers—where learning, discipline, counselling, spirituality and technical skills work together. Where inmates leave less likely to return. Where recidivism is replaced by reintegration, and prison becomes not a revolving door—but a turning point,” he added.

The chairman says that is what his center represents, and what it seeks to contribute to, as the graduation event is proof that such is possible in The Gambia, instead of the infamous stories associated with prisons in the past.