Guyana's president links substance abuse to repeat offending

Ignoring mental health and addiction in schools is just setting the prison system up for failure.

Root Causes of Repeat Offending

• Irfaan Ali calls substance abuse a major driver of crime.
• He says untreated mental health pushes people into the system.
• The president argues that schools lack any structured intervention plans.
• Vaping is getting called out as a linked mental health risk.

Guyana’s Broader Social Breakdown

• Ali is sounding alarms about men losing their role across the Caribbean.
• He claims male development has been ignored for too long.
• Crime prevention needs more than just better prison buildings.
• Early social interventions are being pitched as the real fix.