For­mer min­is­ter of state in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and MP for Laven­tille, Don­na Cox needs to re­alise that "change be­gins with me" and start do­ing as the fa­mous song in­structs one to do: "I am look­ing at the man in the mir­ror." How could you use pris­on­ers un­der the watch of prison of­fi­cers to clean your pri­vate res­i­dence, cut and hedge your lawn? How does that con­sti­tute com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice? In­mates should in­deed per­form com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice but not clean­ing a Min­is­ter's per­son­al res­i­dence. They should be made to clean the Of­fice of the Par­lia­ment, The Na­tion­al Mu­se­um, the Botan­i­cal gar­dens should be up­kept by them. I even think that this PP Gov­ern­ment should en­gage in dis­cus­sions to see how in­mates could up­keep roads, com­mu­ni­ty parks, drains and en­gage in clean up ex­er­cis­es.

I hon­est­ly think that pub­lic funds could be saved if we tact­ful­ly use the ser­vices of in­mates for na­tion­al ben­e­fit and there­by re­duc­ing gov­ern­ment ex­pen­di­ture in con­tract­ing ser­vices to per­form rudi­men­ta­ry tasks. This is not rock­et sci­ence. When all the so­cial sci­en­tists, so­cial psy­chol­o­gist and coun­selling psy­chol­o­gist are giv­ing all dif­fer­ent in­tri­cate the­o­ries for deca­dent be­hav­iour and so­cial de­vi­a­tion, it is sim­ple-we just have to look up (those who were in pow­er en­gag­ing in be­hav­iour such as this, which may seem in­signif­i­cant but up­on close ex­am­i­na­tion has se­ri­ous ram­i­fi­ca­tions). These in­mates are serv­ing time and sur­viv­ing on tax­pay­ers' dol­lars-it is on­ly right that as part of their pun­ish­ment and the re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion process, they do ser­vice and deeds that ben­e­fit the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty/na­tion. Would MP Cox please clar­i­fy if her pri­vate res­i­dence was used as the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre un­der the for­mer regime? I am ask­ing as I was in Lon­don from 2006-2010.

Hei­di O'Sul­li­van

Mara­bel­la