Keeping in line with International Men’s Week 2026, Acting Superintendant of His Majesty’s Prison, Mrs. Kerrice Saunders-Bernard, was thoughtful enough to devise a special feature of the week that would be significantly meaningful to the inmates of the prison – a haircut treat.
She engaged the services of Reynaldo’s Barbershop and Fresh Again Self Care Studio, where four professional barbers actually offered prestigious haircuts and hairstyles to the inmates of the prison.
“I genuinely care for our inmates,” said Mrs. Saunders-Bernard. “Through this barber treatment, I decided to start here and now to tangibly show them that I care about their wellbeing, other than the regular general treatment that they would receive here while they are incarcerated.”
When asked if the prisoners get regular haircuts, she answered: “Well, for professional barbering service it is just today. However, we do have a fellow inmate who is skillful enough to offer his hair-cutting services to those who would need haircuts, but this is not consistent and it is not [at] a professional level,” she said.
As far as other inmate benefits go, Mrs. Saunders-Bernard said that in due course she will be doing her best to help them to obtain certain essential documentation that they may not now have, such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses, passports, etc. “I feel like the prison can endeavour to do more in order to make inmates feel worthwhile and ready for easier integration into society when they are ultimately released.”
“I also have a plan, subject to approval, of course, to feature a family fun-day for the inmates. I will be proposing this activity in the not-too-distant future,” she said. “As humans they are social beings, and they do miss what is happening in society.
“While they are here they would have missed a lot of occasions: they miss their children’s birthday parties; they miss Father’s Day celebrations, their parents’ anniversaries, their relatives’ weddings, and the birth of nieces and nephews, etc, and they just can’t be there.
“Yes, they are in here for punitive discipline, and they might have lost certain rights and privileges, but I feel it is not enough to have a family member systematically visit them, weekly, for just a half-hour. When relatives leave after such visits, I observe that some inmates really broke down, and it is rather sad.”
So, I would like to propose a family fun-day, she said, “where inmates can get the privilege, once in a while, to connect with their relatives and family members, for an extended time, and on a more meaningful level.”
She stated that it is her mission to convince the inmates that they are not forgotten, they are genuinely cared for, and that they are valued, even though they might have made life-changing mistakes.
“They need to realize that their circumstances do not define them,” she stressed. “Recently, I have coined a motivational mantra in the form of a quote which I developed particularly for these inmates, and I would like them all to grasp it,” Mrs. Saunders-Bernard remarked. “It goes like this: ‘Your circumstances don’t define you; rise, transform, and stand among the victorious.’”
She acknowledged that she got quite emotional while creating, writing and then reading this quote, and she trusts that each inmate will be inspired by this declaration and motivated by this truth.
In collaboration with the Gender Affairs Unit, additional prison-related activities for Men’s Week will include a Motivational Session at the prison’s classroom facilitated by Men’s Week awardees on Tuesday, June 16th; a Training Session on Environmental Health also held in the classroom on Wednesday, June 17th; and attendance at the National Men’s Conference in which four selected inmates would participate on Saturday, June 20th.
