Archive for February, 2009
Civil servants delighted by outcome of talks
(CNS): the president of the Cayman Islands Civil Service Association (CICSA) has said he and the membership are ecstatic over the excellent news that Cayman’s new constitution will not deprive senior civil servants of their democratic rights. Following the Association’s written submission to the talks in the UK, the proposal to include a 12 month hiatus before top public servants could run for political office after resigning has been dropped.
“The Management Council spent many, many hours in endeavouring to put our position forward,” said CICSA President James Watler. “We met with a number of interested parties in regards to giving us their support. Many of our members made contact with us and gave us their full support as we pressed forward in making our position clear on the issue at hand.”
Watler explained that before the delegation went to London, he and a delegation from the Association’s Management Council met with Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush to put forward their case.
“It is our belief that the nation’s Constitution is not the place to address the issue of a hiatus or break period for senior civil servants. We stand by our convictions that currently the PSML (Public Service Management Law) and Regulations and the code of conduct can adequately take care of the concern as was expressed by Mr Bush,” he said.
“CICSA was shocked and appalled to see this inserted into the Constitution at the last round of discussions that was held in Cayman a couple of weeks ago. How could anyone in this day and age agree with such a stance! Just about two weeks ago we celebrated 50 years since Caymanian women gained the right to vote and be able to offer their services as a candidate for election, and as we have so passionately celebrated this wonderful turning of events, we are now about to snatch away the rights of civil servants who may want to serve their country in a greater and more dynamic way.”
Following the strong and emphatic submission to the talks, however, the proposal which had been initiated by the opposition was dropped. The proposal had its origins in the issues surrounding recommendations made by Sir Richard Tucker following the tribunal regarding Minister Charles Clifford’s decision to leak documents to the local press after he resigned from his post of permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism before running for office.
In his written letter to the constitutional talks, Watler noted that a hiatus would not prevent anyone from leaking documents but merely disenfranchise an undisclosed number of people from the real democratic process.
New Insolvency Law to modernise process
(CNS): It has been a while in the making, but it has finally happened. The updating of Cayman’s law of corporate insolvency, an area of Cayman Islands law that, especially in the current economic situation, is crucial to our financial services industry will take effect on 1 March 2009. With the publication in an ‘extraordinary’ or special issue of the Cayman Islands Gazette published on Friday 23 January, of three new sets of procedural rules dealing with how insolvency matters are conducted, as well as an amendment to the Grand Court Rules, the overhaul of Cayman’s insolvency regime is achieved.
Amendments to the Companies Law that were enacted in 2007, but not brought into force pending the preparation of the rules, will now enter into effect on 1 March 2009, at the same time as the new rules.
The new rules are The Companies Winding-up Rules 2008, The Insolvency Practitioners’ Regulations 2008, The Foreign Bankruptcy Proceedings (international Co-operation Rules 2008 and the Grand Court (Amendment No. 2 Rules) 2008.
Until now, insolvency procedure in the Cayman Islands has been governed by what can only be described as something of a fudge.
Order 102, rule 17 of the Grand Court Rules provided that “all proceedings concerning or arising out of the liquidation of any company shall, so far as practicable, be made in accordance with The Insolvency Rules 1986 (S.I. 1986/1925) [of the United Kingdom] insofar as such rules are not inconsistent with the Law or such other rules as may be applied to the proceeding in question.”
Although this was somehow made to work tolerably well for many years, it was clearly less than satisfactory, not least because of the significant differences between the substantive insolvency law of England and the Cayman Islands, which meant that large sections of the Insolvency Rules 1986 were irrelevant or inapplicable. Both a committee of private sector practitioners in 2002 and the government’s Law Reform Commission in 2006 recommended, along with the modernisation of Cayman’s substantive law of insolvency, the adoption of specific insolvency rules for the jurisdiction. They also recommended the codification of the extensive cross-border co-operation in insolvency cases that was already taking place.
Similar uncertainty historically surrounded the question of the qualifications to act as liquidator of a company, particularly in a jurisdiction that does not have its own insolvency practitioner or accountancy qualification. The Grand Court was simply empowered to appoint such persons as it thought fit. The opportunity has been taken to introduce some specific criteria for eligibility, and also to codify the rules relating to liquidators’ remuneration.
The new rules and regulations, together with the replacement of Part V of the Companies Law (dealing with insolvency generally) and the introduction of Part XVI (dealing with international co-operation), represent a major enhancement of the Cayman Islands’ legislative framework. They provide the jurisdiction with an up-to-date and well thought-out insolvency regime specifically tailored to meet the needs of users of the Cayman Islands as a major financial centre.
The Companies Winding-up Rules 2008: These rules, to be cited as ‘CWR,’ represent the first procedural rules for insolvency matters specifically adopted for the Cayman Islands. They replace the UK’s Insolvency Rules 1986 (S.I. 1986/1925) (‘IR86’) in relation to all proceedings commenced, and all steps taken in existing proceedings, after 1 March 2009.
In many areas, particularly where the underlying law is similar, the CWR closely follow the terms of the IR86 (specifically Part 4, being the part of IR86 dealing with the winding up of companies), with only minor local modifications. These areas include: the form, content and service of statutory demands; the presentation, filing, advertisement and hearing of winding-up petitions; the appointment and removal of official liquidators; the holding of meetings of creditors or contributories; the filing and determination of proofs of debt and related appeals; mutual credit, set-off and netting; interest; and the collection and distribution of assets.
Even in these areas there are differences. A line-by-line comparison is beyond the scope of this article. There is no substitute for detailed review of the new rules with regard to the circumstances of each particular case.
Other parts of the CWR are intended to address procedures that differ from those available in England & Wales, such as voluntary winding up subject to court supervision, or petitions presented by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, or adopt significantly different approaches to particular topics. Selected highlights in these areas are set outbelow.
Contributories’ petitions: these are covered by CWR O. 3, r. 11-12, in rather different terms to IR86 rules 4.22 and 4.23. In particular, the directions to be given by the court are required to address whether the company can properly participate in the proceedings or is to be treated merely as the subject matter of the proceedings, and whether the petition should be treated as a proceeding against the company or as one between particular members of the company.
Monetary Authority petitions (CWR O. 3, r. 13-15): the special rules for this type of petition (usually brought under a power granted to the Authority under one of the regulatory laws and in relation to a regulated entity) provide for the service and filing of the petition, the giving of directions for the hearing of the petition, and for any member, director or professional service provider of the company to appear at the hearing, having first given three days’ notice.
Sanction applications: CWR O. 11 provides a specific regime for the making of applications by official liquidators for the court’s approval of a specific course of action, or by the liquidation committee or specific creditors to compel or prevent such a course of action. These applications are collectively defined as ‘sanction applications,’ and the rules specify who must be served, who may be heard and what evidence is to be adduced. Sanction applications will generally be heard in chambers.
Payment of dividends: a significant difference between the way this is addressed in CWR O.18 and IR86 Part 11 is that the latter’s requirement (absent specific circumstances laid down in the rules) that the official liquidator pay each dividend within four months of the last date for proving in relation to that dividend has not found its way into the CWR at all. The official liquidator must still give notice of his intention to declare a dividend and set a last date for proving, but there is no specific time within which it must then be paid. This may have been to allow greater flexibility in cross-border cases, where it is desirable to co-ordinate with foreign procedures applying to related estates and those procedures make a set time limit difficult to operate.
International protocols: official liquidators of Cayman companies that are the subject of parallel insolvency proceedings in another jurisdiction, or whose assets overseas are subject to foreign bankruptcy or receivership proceedings come under a new duty contained in CWR O. 21, r. 2. They are now obliged to consider whether it is appropriate to enter into an international protocol with any foreign officeholder. If they do, rule 3 sets out the areas such a protocol may cover. Such protocols have to be approved by the court and cannot exclude the jurisdiction of the court.
Unclaimed dividends and undistributed assets: the question of what to do with amounts of money left over at the end of a liquidation because, for example, dividend cheques sent to creditors have been returned undelivered or have not been presented often exercises the minds of official liquidators. CWR O. 23 now provides a specific regime for this situation, involving a post-liquidation trust. The former liquidator holds the assets on trust for the creditors of the now-dissolved company for one year after the dissolution. Provision is made for the payment of his fees for so acting. If the assets are still unclaimed after a year, they pass to the Financial Secretary, to be administered by him under the Public Management and Finance Law.
The Insolvency Practitioners’ Regulations 2008: For the first time, insolvency practitioners in Cayman will have to meet defined criteria for appointment as official liquidators. Those criteria relate to four areas: professional qualifications, residence, independence and insurance.
Professional qualifications. A person must either:
(a) be licensed as an insolvency practitioner in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or Canada; or
(b) be qualified as a professional accountant by a ‘relevant institute,’ in good standing with such institute, have a minimum of five years’ experience in the restructuring or winding-up of businesses and be credited with not less than 2,500 chargeable hours of work in that area. (‘Relevant institute’ is defined as an institute listed in Schedule 2 of the Public Accountants Law, but this is an error in the drafting, as that schedule was repealed in 2008. The right to approve accountancy institutes for the purposes of qualification to practise in Cayman is now vested in the Council of the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants. The Regulations will presumably be amended in due course to correct this point.)
There is, however, a ‘grandfathering’ provision, in that anyone who has been appointed by the Court as an official liquidator of a company at any time within the five years immediately preceding the commencement date (i.e. since 1 March 2004) remains eligible for appointments.
Residence. It will be a condition of appointment that a person is resident in the Cayman Islands and that he, or his firm, has the appropriate ‘trade and business licence.’ However, a foreign practitioner who meets the independence and insurance requirements described below may be appointed jointly with a local practitioner who is eligible for appointment under the rules, but not as sole official liquidator. This reflects and codifies the current practice of the Grand Court.
Independence. A person who is not independent of the debtor company may not be appointed. Specifically, if a practitioner or his firm has audited the company in the last three years he is excluded.
Insurance. Insolvency practitioners will now have to have professional indemnity cover of at least US$10 million per claim and $20 million in aggregate with a deductible of not more than $100,000. The Court can require higher limits of cover in specific cases. Practice Direction No. 1 of 2003 already requires cover of at least $10 million per claim but the requirements as to overall cover and level of deductible are new.
The other main area covered by the new regulations is the remuneration of official liquidators. Regulations 10 to 15 broadly follow the current approach, where ultimate control over remuneration rests with the Court. The Regulations take account of the fact that the new Companies Winding-up Rules (CWR) formally establish the concept of Liquidation Committees, and provide for the negotiation, conclusion and approval by the Court, of a ‘remuneration agreement.’ This can provide for remuneration on the basis of time spent, percentage of distributions, percentage of realisations, a fixed fee or any combination of those methods. The Schedule to the Regulations sets limits in each type of case. For remuneration by time spent, a range is set for each of a number of levels of staff. Remuneration agreements concluded under the Regulations cannot require Official Liquidators to accept less than the lower end of those ranges, nor can the liquidation committee agree to pay more than the top of the range.
It is notable that the regulations refer to the committee ‘agreeing to pay’: in fact the committee’s approval, both of the basis of remuneration and the amount sought by the liquidator for a given period, is not conclusive. The liquidator still has to apply to the court, providing the court with the report and accounts already given to the committee and evidence of the committee’sposition. If the liquidation committee’s approval is not forthcoming, the official liquidator has to apply to the court for the determination of the matter.
Where there is no liquidation committee, provision is made for a meeting of the creditors or contributories to be held and for their views to be taken.
The provisions of the regulations relating to appointment of liquidators apply to appointments after 1 March 2009. Those relating to remuneration agreements and approval of rates of remuneration apply to work done after that date. The provisions concerning approval of payments in respect of remuneration apply to all applications made after that date.
The Foreign Bankruptcy Proceedings (International Co-operation) Rules 2008: These Rules regulate applications made under the new Part XVI of the Companies Law, and come into operation on 1 March 2009 along with Part XVI itself. They comprise only three operative provisions.
Rule 2 lays down the procedure to be followed on an application by a foreign representative for a declaration that he is entitled to act on behalf of a debtor. It prescribes the contents of the petition by which such applications are to be made and the evidence that must be filed in its support. Notably, this includes an affidavit of foreign law explaining the powers and duties of the foreign representative under the law of his place of appointment.
Rule 3 makes similar provision in relation to applications for ancillary orders such as injunctions, orders for stay of enforcement, examination or delivery up of property. These applications are made by originating summons and must be supported by an affidavit setting out the basis on which it is alleged that the order should be made against the particular respondent, as well as an affidavit of foreign law as under Rule 2.
Rule 4 requires any Cayman company, and any foreign company registered in Cayman, that is made the subject of foreignbankruptcy proceedings to give notice of that fact to the Registrar and advertise it in the Cayman Islands Gazette.
The Appendix to the Rules contains prescribed forms of the various orders. It is notable that the headings of all the prescribed orders begin ‘In the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, Financial Services Division.’ There has not to date been any announcement of the establishment of such a division.
The Grand Court (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2008: Because the Grand Court Rules are a comprehensive procedural code used by practitioners on a daily basis both in court and in their offices, amendments are always made by replacement of entire Orders within the GCR, enabling the substitution of the relevant pages in printed copies. Accordingly, these Amendment Rules replace the existing Orders 1 and 102 of the GCR with new versions set out in an appendix, even though the changes are relatively minor and entirely consequential upon the introduction of the Companies Winding-up Rules 2008. They also revoke Practice Directions 1 of 2003 (Official Liquidators: Security for the Due Performance of their Duties) and 1 of 2006 (Liquidators’ Remuneration), both of which subjects are now dealt with by the Insolvency Practitioners’ Regulations 2008.
Latest smartphone arrives
(CNS): Despite the economic downtown local telecoms provider LIME is expecting brisk business at its stores this Wednesday when the new BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone arrives in Cayman. “There’s always a lot of excitement when we have a new BlackBerry product. The BlackBerry Bold flew off our shelves and I think the new BlackBerry Curve 8900 is going to be very popular as well,” said LIME’s Executive Vice President Commercial, Mariano Doble.
To launch the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone, LIME said that during February any new prepaid or postpaid BlackBerry service subscriber will get 30 days of free data service. “For anyone who hasn’t yet experienced the ease, convenience and fun of a BlackBerry smartphone, LIME has an offer that makes it easier to try it out,” Doble added.
In addition to a sleek, stylish design, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 has a large, vivid display with the highest resolution available on a BlackBerry smartphone (480×360), as well as a 512MHz next generation processor for fast and responsive performance. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 also has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) for extended data coverage and faster web browsing.
Bid to stop Levers’ costs fails
(CNS): Although the tribunal, appointed to investigate complaints relating to Grand Court Justice Priya Levers, recently agreed to pay 75% of Levers’ costs to defend herself against the accusations of misbehaviour, CNS has learned that attempts were made by the Governor’s Office to overturn that award and reduce the obligation to 20%. However, the attempts failed. Under the current arrangement the Grand Court judge will receive three quarters of her legal costs on a week to week basis and the remaining quarter will be paid to her if the tribunal finds in her favour.
According to sources close to the issue, the Governor’s Office had contacted Sir Philip Otton, one of the tribunal’s judges, stating that they were having difficulty with the award made by the tribunal that obliged the Cayman Islands government to pay Levers’ cost up front. However, the tribunal has refused to alter the award. Justice Levers’ defence attorney, Anthony Akiwumi, recently stated the significance of the tribunal agreeing the fees.
“This was an important issue because the costs of her legal representation in the Tribunal of Inquiry will be substantial and the unanimous decision of the Tribunal of Inquiry in Madam Justice Levers favour is significant.”
Justice Levers also noted recently her right to the hearing when Minister Charles Clifford appeared on Rooster’s morning phone-in show, Crosstalk, suggesting that in the past the government would have paid off the judge instead of incurring the costs of another expensive legal hearing — thereby implying her guilt by his suggestion. Justice Levers herself called in to the show to correct him, saying she had a right to be heard and that the Minister would do well to find out the details of the accusations against her.
“The constitution provides that the only way that a judge can be removed is by holding a tribunal of enquiry and then subsequently that tribunal’s recommendation must be endorsed by the Privy Council,” Justice Levers said. “Since the minister is being asked to fund these exorbitant costs he should find out the nature of the complaint. That, I think, is very important if you are being asked to fund something.”
The full details and nature of the accusations made against Justice Levers have yet to be revealed in the public domain. However, CNS understands they have no connection to any of her judgements or any issues of dishonesty. According to sources, they are of a personal nature and Justice Levers still enjoys widespread support throughout the legal community.
When he announced the tribunal last September, the governor said that in April 2008 certain complaints relating to Justice Levers were brought to his attention. “Having given the matter the most careful consideration, I have appointed a tribunal under the relevant provisions of the Constitution to inquire into the matter and report back to me,” the governor said at the time.
According to the terms of reference of the tribunal, it will carry out a “factual investigation and report to the governor whether the conduct of Madam Justice Levers taken as a whole has fallen below the standard reasonably to be expected of a holder of the office of Judge of the Grand Court so as to warrant proceedings for her removal.
Smart policies, not more spending
In the wake of an impending economic downturn, what is required is not a desperate attempt to play the spending game; but effective policies to keep the economy going.
The global economy faces what many regard as its worse downturn in over 7 decades and governments around the world are responding with various degrees of ‘economic stimulus packages’. The US leads with about an 800 billion dollar package, with China next at 600 billion and other countries such as the UK following. In just about every country there is some activity on the public sector side to use Keynesian style interventions to replace the downturn expected, or already being experienced, in their private sectors.
So what about the Cayman Islands?
There are a couple of serious limitations as to what can be done in the Cayman Islands as far any financial stimulus package is concerned.
The first of these is that our government is essentially ‘broke’. The government does not have access to funds sitting around for a rainy day. We can tell from previous and current government forecasts that all is not well with the public sector’s fiscal position and the government’s own actions, in cutting back on its spending across the board, is also clear evidence of this position.
The second issue is that the government is not in a position to borrow significantly. The country’s borrowings have gone from $252 million in 2005 to a forecasted $658 million by this summer, representing an increase of over 161% in a single four year period. Our borrowing is also limited by the nature of our economic and monetary system. Unlike some other countries it would not be appropriate for the Cayman Islands government to engage in the type of monetary policy to effectively “print money” due to the fact that we have a full currency board system and for a number of other reasons.
So what’s left?
We can make some attempts to give a fiscal boost to the economy by spending what we can now. But the truth is that this ‘spending game’ is way out of our reach. Building a couple of schools or paving some roads may do good for the country in the long term, but will have only negligible affects over the next 12 to 18 months. What is required is a focus on those areas of policy that cause the most impact on the local economy today. We also need to consider policies that give consumers a reason to spend today and to avoid tightening up in response to tough economic times.
One of these policy areas relates to the work permit system. Work permits are a very powerful short term policy tool in the Cayman Islands economy due to the significant portion of foreign workers in our labour force. Work permit changes in Cayman have a similar impact as interest rates changes in the US economy. And while interest rates can take sometimes up to a year to start impacting the US economy, we usually see the impact of work permit changes within months in the Cayman Islands.
In the short term (the next 12 to 18 months) the business sector needs an environment that makes it as easy as possible to do business. That means they need access to work permits to either expand or to restructure their work force in response to the crisis. The recently announced new immigration system will clearly take some time for the bugs to be worked out. And neither can the new system be seen as addressing the need for short term policies to specifically deal with the economic downturn. The two issues must be kept separate so that the necessary policy stimulus can be provided while the immigration system can be allowed to work itself through over the medium term.
Another policy stimulus area is changes to stamp duty on property transactions. History provides some evidence that whenever the government reduces stamp duty, the net result is usually no harm to government revenues and the changes always results in more property transactions, which means more economic activity.
The final area relates to ensuring that, despite an impending election in May, the government refrains from the usual ‘man on the street/anti business’ rhetoric which creates further unease within the business sector, despite their political licence to do so.
None of these areas require any funding as such from the government and they will all go a long way in countering what we are now starting to experience. The question is whether the government is able to separate politics and protectionism from short term economic survival and pragmatism. If it can we will all be that much more likely to weather the economic storm.
Paul Byles is Managing Director of Focus Corporate Services & Consulting. He has worked in the offshore sector for over 18 years and is an economist and international consultant in the areas of economics and financial regulation.
Turning cooking oil into fuel
(New York Times): Vats of grease may make health advocates cringe, but Westchester County officials see excess cooking oil from the county’s 3,500 restaurants as a means of cleaner, cheaper fuel. With seven vehicles that run solely on fuel made from cooking oil and 125 vehicles that run on a mix of cooking oil and diesel fuel, the county has begun a program to take excess oil off local restaurateurs’ hands free to use it as an alternative energy source. Go to article
Politician to make house calls on voters
(CNS): With little money to spend on a high profile campaign, Sandra Catron, who is running for political office in the district of Bodden Town as an independent candidate, says that she intends to do things differently and is offering house calls to voters. Calling the initiative Talk Time, Catron says she will be available for individuals or organizations who would like to have a group meeting with her to discuss their concerns at their homes or anywhere suitable.
All about reaching out to people, Catron said she has already reached out via e-mail and website technology but nothing can replace door to door canvassing and small group meetings, she says. “It’s very easy to think that people should come to me, but I subscribe to a different fundamental philosophy and think that I need to make myself available to people, and that means going into their homes and organizations,” she added.
She said that having a politician visit your home or organization is a powerful opportunity, allowing people to organize what questions and issues they would like to discuss. Catron explained that she has identified herself as a new political philosophy called “peopletician”.
“A peopletician is someone with a style which is aligned more with the interests of the people than with the interests of the government or with business,” she said in a release. "Peopleticians are often perceived as fighters for the common man and they are commonly beloved by their constituents." Catron added that she has adopted the mentality of a peopletician by demonstrating a commitment to individuals and community values.
John Douglas, a member of Catron’s political committee, said Talk Time will break down the alienation people feel towards politics and politicians. “When a politician visits the home or workplace it is personal and concrete and it shows the reciprocity that should be inherent in the political process,” he added.
Catron is inviting people to contact her at 939-7602 or visit the website www.sandracatron.com to book an appointment at your home or office today.
‘Nonsense’ in our genes
(ScienceDaily): 1 in 200 of our human genes can be inactivated with no detectable effect on our health. A study by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists raises new questions about the effects of gene loss on our wellbeing and evolution. The study explores single letter changes in our genetic code that affect the ability of genes to produce proteins. The researchers’ findings suggest that such mutations, while sometimes harmful, generally have little consequence for the individual and may occasionally even be beneficial in evolutionary terms. Go to article
“Ancient” Syriac Bible found in Cyprus
(Reuters): Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus. The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old. The manuscript carries excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on vellum and loosely strung together, photos provided to Reuters showed. Go to article
Prison reading project at risk
(CNS): Local non-governmental organisation the Cayman Islands Reading Aides, which helps adults who have difficulties with literacy and numeracy, is in desperate need of volunteers in order to maintain some of its valuable programmes. While CIRA receives financial support for its material resources from Rotary, without volunteers the programme cannot function and there are particular concerns for the prison reading project where there is a desperate shortage of volunteers.
“CIRA is always in need of volunteers for a wide variety of community adult literacy programmes but we are particularly short of people to help keep the prison programme running,” said Michelle Pentney the co-ordinator of the prison project. (Pictured above working with Northward Inmates.) “We are the only people offering literacy classes to prisoners and we feel that helping those in the prison system tackle their literacy issues is probably one of the most important jobs we do.”
Pentney explained that she needs people who can spare a couple of hours to help on Monday evenings and on Wednesday afternoons to help some of the most vulnerable people in our community get their lives back on track. “It is always harder to find people willing to work with prisoners or those on parole but we need to help these people most of all. If we can give prisoners the tools they need to find gainful employment when they leave the system we are not only helping them but we are protecting the community from further crimes those individuals may commit if they are not offered alternatives.”
Governor Stuart Jack recently unveiled the new classroom block at the HMP Northward, which was built by the inmates, and noted how important education was to rehabilitation. “For rehabilitation to work, we will need the community to actively partner with government,” he said. “With this emphasis on rehabilitation, inmates are being helped to improve their attitudes and skills. The goal is to ease their re-entry into the mainstream.”
That said some of the prisoners who have severe learning difficulties still only receive one class per week conducted by CIRA, and while Pentney has introduced a programme, under the tutor’s and her own direction, whereby inmates who are literate are helping those who are not, without more volunteers the project is at risk.
“If we are not there to help these prisoners there are no other opportunities for these prisoners to be helped and possibly turn their life around,” she said.
One of Pentney’s long standing volunteers told CNS that working with prisoners and those on parole is exceptionally rewarding. “These people really need our help most of all. The reason why many of them are incarcerated in the first place is because of their disability. If you can’t read it is almost impossible to hold down a well paying job,” she said. “Often, too, these people have been let down and failed by the system and the community so many times that when they see someone who comes to help for no other reason than to help they are exceptionally grateful. After all they are not used to kindness.”
Anyone who thinks they can help CIRA with the prison and related projects, please contact Michelle Pentney on 925 2624 or email: michelle@pentney.com