Chairman of the Mediation Board of T&T (MBTT) Justice Vasheist Kokaram is calling on the authorities to implement a series of initiatives in the prisons system under the umbrella of "Peace Management."Kokaram said the society was slowly disintegrating because of impatience and unbridled passion.He was speaking to prisons officers at a mediation workshop at the Prisons' Training College, Tumpuna Road, Arima, yesterday."The purpose of mediation is to restore peace and to transform combatants into peacemakers," Kokaram said.
"Mediation is not meditation...It is a process of facilitated negotiation."A process where parties who are involved in a dispute obtain the assistance of a third party mediator to facilitate a dialogue between them so that they may resolve their conflict."Some of the initiatives he outlined included training prisons officers, administrators, social workers and psychologists in conflict prevention and resolution.He also called for a focus on new communication and negotiation techniques, crisis and conflict management skills and introduced institutionalised mediation into prisons.
The workshop, titled "Building a culture of Mediation in Trinidad and Tobago," was held by the MBTT in collaboration with the T&T Prisons Service.Also speaking was Minister in the Ministry of National Security Colin Partap who said mediation, when methodically executed in a penal environment, would mentally prepare the offender for productive reintegration."Through these restorative programmes and initiatives certain anticipated outcomes are envisaged," Partap said."For the victims, the objectives of repayment for material losses, as well as a sense of acknowledgement of the harm caused and some degree of repair and reconciliation, will be realised."He added mediation was a tool for restorative justice which facilitated not only the rehabilitation of the victim, but also the reintegration of the offender into society.