A number of high profile individuals were fitted with electronic monitoring devices here in Grand Cayman. They included a Magistrate, Police Sergeant, Prison chief, and Chief Probation Officer.

However, before the community becomes alarmed at an apparent break down in law and order involving such senior officials, it should be pointed out that the four were visiting Cayman as part of a fact finding project sponsored by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and they were only monitored for 24 hours in order to assess the system’s capability.

The visitors were Tamia Richards (Magistrate, British Virgin Islands), Sgt Carl Mason (Royal Virgin Islands Police Force), Ian Sargent (Prison Superintendent, Turks & Caicos Islands) and Jocelyn Johnson (Chief Probation Officer, Anguilla).

During the three days on Grand Cayman, they undertook training on the electronic monitoring system run jointly by the Department of Public Safety’s Electronic Monitoring Centre and The Security Centre Ltd. They also held meetings with the Department of Community Rehabilitation, the prison, and RCIPS as well as attending a Drug Court graduation.

The four now leave Grand Cayman with excellent first-hand experience of the offender monitoring system, as well as two devices for each island which they will use on pilot projects to increase supervision of low risk offenders.  They also have good links with a range of officials in Cayman which will serve to increase inter-island cooperation in future.

Steve Fradley, FCO Prison Reform Coordinator for the Overseas Territories, who coordinated the visit, with assistance from Eric Bush in the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, commented that; “This visit to Grand Cayman was an excellent opportunity for officials from other Overseas Territories to look at the Cayman experience of setting up an offender electronic monitoring system.”

He added, “All those who came to Cayman have been extremely impressed with everything they have seen and the visit has served to improve links and working relationships between the various agencies in the criminal justice field. Pilot projects on electronic monitoring will now take place in various territories over the next few months”.