Female prison officer appointed Corporal

The first female prison officer to be appointed corporal kept her upwards momentum when she locked down a bachelor’s degree in Counselling last week.

At the age of 44 years, Corporal Nicole Delecia received her degree in Guidance and Counselling from the Jamaican Theological Seminary, through the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College College (SVGCC) last week Tuesday.

Delecia was accepted to do the degree, reserved for qualified teachers, because she already had a certificate from the University of the West Indies in Counselling, she says. She is also the holder of an Associate’s degree in Psychology.

Delecia has been called a ‘pioneer’ by her senior officer, Chief Prison Officer Rodriguez, because, after continually upgrading her education and being promoted to Corporal, she is opening the way for other female prison officers.

Rodriguez informed that at the female prison, the staff is limited, and there is only one senior position, namely the matron, and this makes the scope for promotion narrow.
He commended Delecia as having done a “fantastic job.”

The Corporal herself spoke to SEARCHLIGHT on the day following her graduation.

During the call she spoke a little of her historic promotion to corporal, when she received her cords on September 6 last year. She informed that after she was promoted, she was moved to the Belle Isle Correctional Institution, where she is working along with five male corporals, overseeing 191 prisoners.

“I think what has been happening over the years, they have this notion that females are supposed to be at the female section of the prisons, that is what society is expecting also. But all through the Caribbean we have males and females working on units, so I think St Vincent has just started to do it, because I am now working at Belle Isle, and Belle Isle is predominantly male populated,” she explained, as to the reason for her promotion after working as a prison officer for 15 years.

The Corporal says that working at Belle Isle is not harder, “It is not. I am getting to where I want to be. I am at this position now where I can make certain decisions.”

The determined woman said she decided to further her education because, “I see the need for it at the prison because inmates are there, nobody to be seeing to them, and they just want to be heard, so I see that need and I have started pursuing the course.”

The prison currently has one counsellor.

Thus, she began the challenging journey of juggling her time between family, work, and school. “When I started studying I was not at Belle Isle, I was at female prisons, so the Department gave me time, so I used to leave at four o’clock, and go to school until eight,” she explained.

“I’m really proud of myself, because I love what I’m doing, I do it with a passion. I do not look down on people. I look at it as people who are sick, who need somebody to listen to, they need help, and I realize that of these problems the people are having, they start from right in the home. We are now in the course of rehabilitating offenders, so that we could have them reintegrated into society,” she stated.

She says that for the future, “I am hoping that the Department would use their assets that they have… I am an asset with a counselling degree, right now I am a corporal…I am hoping that they would utilize me, for the field that I am really, really, really into, and move with strength and passion in.”

She continued, “I can do counselling. I can help with trying to do things like anger management, conflict resolution, not only to the prisoners but also to officers.”