PHILIPSBURG:— On Wednesday, December 30th, 2020 the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson, handed over three brand new computers to the staff and management of the Pointe Blanche prison. The computers were received from SBIR (Stichting Beheer ICT Rechtshandhaving) who responded to the Minister’s call for the need for computers to support the rehabilitation program for prisoners and thus generously donated computers towards this end. With these new computers, prisoners will be able to follow online courses and other types of educational activities as part of their resocialization and rehabilitation process. Research has shown that recidivism rates go down when prisoners participate in educational programs while incarcerated and that prisons tend to become safer for prisoners and staff when education is more accessible.
The SBIR is the Curacao based intergovernmental Foundation that manages ICT in Law Enforcement and is based on the Collaboration Agreement ICT Law Enforcement Chain between Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, and the Netherlands (for Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba). Through the SBIR, the four Kingdom countries closely cooperate with the various ICT aspects of law enforcement. St. Maarten is represented in the Supervisory Board of this non-profit ICT foundation by the department head of Judicial Affairs and deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice Mr. drs. Vidjai Jusia.
In the coming year, the SBIR will implement a new management operation system at the prison, which is based on the ICT system of the newly constructed prison in Bonaire. In the short term, the SBIR will install the Foreigner Management System (FMS) for the Immigration and Border Protection services (IBP). The Border Management System (BMS) and the management operating system for the Police: ACTPOL, have already been implemented. The SBIR has also developed and implemented essential software products for the Public Prosecutor’s office and for the Joint Court of Justice and will also be doing this for the Court of Guardianship and St. Maarten’s Probation & Parole service (SJIS) .
The Minister of Justice is extremely grateful for the donation by the SBIR and hopes that the Prison and the inmates make very good use of the computers. Minister Richardson indicated that once the FMS is rolled out, she intends to have an additional seven (7) computers transferred from IBP to the prison to be used for and by the prisoners.
