The Prison Service is responsible for the safe custody of all persons committed by the courts, to this end His Majesty’s Prison provides many roles for the community. It is a prison, young offenders institute, juvenile detention centre, remand centre and immigration removal facility rolled into one. With such a varied remit in custodial terms we have to provide an extensive range of services to those in our care. It is our responsibility to deliver in two main areas, Public Protection and Reducing Re-Offending. The Virgin Islands Prison Service serves the public by helping prisoners to lead law abiding and useful lives in custody and after release, it is our duty to treat them with both dignity and humanity.
Vision
A progressive organization that has the trust and confidence of the public, His Majesty’s Prison will help protect the Virgin Islands by:
- Ensuring compliance and providing supervision for people incarcerated and involved in community outreach programs;
- Working with offenders to facilitate change by developing pro- social behavior; and
- Working with the community and other stakeholders to provide opportunities for reintegration.
Mission
To contribute to a safer Virgin Islands by providing a safe, secure, humane and effective prison system with opportunities for rehabilitation, personal development, reintegration and community engagement to reduce re-offending.
Core Values
His Majesty’s Prison upholds the following core values:
- TEAM WORK: We achieve more by working together than we can as individuals working alone.
- INTEGRITY: We must always have the courage to do the right thing, the decent thing …even when no else is watching.
- POTENTIAL: Everyone has the potential to be a better person and we actively seek to provide staff and those in custody with opportunities to realise and achieve this.
- SAFETY: We actively contribute to maintaining an environment in which staff and those in our custody feel safe and ultimately contribute to a safer community.
- SUPPORT: We actively seek to provide support to staff and support rehabilitation of those in custody.
Our Priority Outcomes
HMP have the following priority outcomes:
- SECURITY: Improve prison physical, procedural, and dynamic security, ensuring there are zero escapes
- SAFETY: Improve the safety of the prison reducing levels of violence, self-harm and use of force.
- DECENCY: Improve respect and decency outcomes, applying the test, 'would I be content for one of my family members to be locked up in HMP Balsam Ghut?'
- REHABILITATION: Improve the opportunities for prisoner rehabilitation, personal development, reintegration, and community engagement.
- PUBLIC PROTECTION: Improve our offender management and public protection processes and systems.
- PEOPLE: Investing and developing our people ensuring they are proud to work for HMVIPS
There is an extensive list of offending behavior programmes also available:
- Substance misuse
- Anger management
- Houses of Healing
- Just Think
- Partners for peace
- A few good men
- Family Man
- Man Up
Separately and pending release we have a resettlement programme in partnership with the BVI Prison Fellowship entitled “Waiting at the Gates”.
Prisoners undergo a full sentence planning process fully assessing their risk of harm and re-offending, allowing staff to direct the most necessary interventions to each prisoner.
Finally, the prison is working with the Ministry of Communication and Works, private partners, The Ministry of Health and Social Development, RVIPF and the Court Services to introduce restorative justice to the Virgin Islands. We have had great success so far in delivering alternatives to custody for first time juvenile and young offenders, and also community pay back and work release schemes for risk assessed adults.
