THE UNITED STATES Government has admitted that it does not communicate well enough with Caribbean nations to which it sends criminal deportees every year.
Speaking at the end of meetings with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and regional attorneys general, US Attorney General Eric Holder promised that his legal authorities would try to communicate better than in the past.
“We have to make sure that these transfers [of Caribbean nationals who had served time for crime in the US] happen in a way that doesn’t disrupt the nations to which they come, and I think that is one of the things we will work on; try to perhaps communicate better than we have in the past to prepare nations receiving these people … we plan to work better, communicate better and try to deal with this issue as best we can,” he told reporters in the courtyard of the US Embassy yesterday morning.
Holder also said the Obama administration was putting greater emphasis on re-entry by convicted criminals into American and Caribbean societies, so that these former inmates could be better equipped to be productive citizens.
“Through those efforts we will hopefully have people coming out of our prison system who are less likely to commit crimes again, to keep our recidivism rate low. This is something that we are really trying to emphasise in the Obama administration,” stated Holder.
Describing the talks as fruitful, he added that apart from continuing dialogue, concrete steps were being taken to formulate ways to protect his fellow Americans and their Caribbean neighbours.
“We share national security interests, we share common values, and upon those values I think we must find ways in which we can confront and ultimately defeat our common enemy,” he said. (RJ)
