Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Car­los Cor­raspe has called on the pub­lic to sup­port ef­forts to re­ha­bil­i­tate for­mer in­mates as they rein­te­grate in­to so­ci­ety af­ter serv­ing their sen­tences. 

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the Rapid­fire Kidz Foun­da­tion Eyes Right glass­es pre­sen­ta­tion func­tion at Av­o­cat Vedic Pri­ma­ry School in Fyz­abad on Sat­ur­day, Cor­raspe said re­ha­bil­i­tat­ed in­mates who have served their sen­tence are of­ten mar­gin­alised in so­ci­ety.

“Kevin just spoke about how it takes a vil­lage to raise a child, and that will stand the test of time for­ev­er. I want to add to that to say it takes a vil­lage to re­form an of­fend­er. The prison ser­vice can on­ly do so much, but we need your as­sis­tance. We need your ac­cep­tance. We need your un­der­stand­ing that you have a role to play,” he said. 

In his re­marks, foun­da­tion pres­i­dent Kevin Rati­ram said Rapid­fire Kidz was dis­trib­ut­ing 48 pairs of glass­es to stu­dents from the Av­o­cat Vedic Pri­ma­ry School and the Oropouche RC Pri­ma­ry School, in­creas­ing the to­tal num­ber of pupils re­ceiv­ing glass­es through their pro­gramme to 1,317. 

Urg­ing cit­i­zens and com­pa­nies to in­vest in young peo­ple by do­nat­ing to schools, he said the quan­ti­ty does not mat­ter as “a lit­tle bit adds up.”

Thank­ing See-Vu Op­ti­cal and their spon­sor Re­pub­lic Bank, Rati­ram warned that if there’s no in­vest­ment in young peo­ple, they would like­ly end up in prison or suf­fer a fate much worse. —Sascha Wil­son