Criminal Justice System Capacity Building: Lessons from a Longitudinal Training Project in Guyana

Authors

  • Natalia Balyasnikova
  • Galina Sergeeva
  • Evelyn Neaman
  • Kaia Ambrose
  • Rolinda Kirton
  • Sonia Poulin

Keywords:

Program design, International development, Police education, Capacity building, Community of practice, Professional learning communities

Abstract

By drawing on two data sets— a performance monitoring plan and an outcome-based evaluation—generated over five years, this article describes training practices developed within a criminal justice system capacity building project in Guyana. The key stakeholders the project included members of the police force, including crime scene and police investigators, police prosecutors and public prosecutors, staff of the forensic labs, magistrates, and judges. The training sessions were led by international subject matter experts in a multidisciplinary and cross-sectional environment. Analysis of the data with reference to program’s guiding educational principles, reveals the following positive factors of the trainings: recognition of co-constructed knowledge within a learning community, cross-sector training, and ongoing workplace support. The article showcases some of training practices and offers strategies for further development of high-impact educational programs for criminal justice system. The authors argue that such training programs need to be dynamic, collaborative, responsive, iterative, and embedded in the enabling environment of a community of practice.

Author Biographies

  • Natalia Balyasnikova

    Natalia Balyasnikova is Assistant Professor of Adult Education at York University, Canada. Her research examines promising educational practices in diverse contexts of adult learning. Prior, she was working as Education Specialist at Justice Education Society.

  • Galina Sergeeva

    Galina Sergeeva was involved in the Strengthening the Criminal Justice System project first as a project coordinator and then as the project manager. She played a key role in designing systems and processes to collect, analyze and report on monitoring and evaluation data for the project.

  • Evelyn Neaman

    Evelyn Neaman, MA, served as the Project Director for the JES Strengthening the Criminal Justice System in Guyana projects. For the past 30 years, she has managed access to justice and criminal justice reform projects across Canada, Ethiopia, Central America and Guyana. She is an independent consultant.

  • Kaia Ambrose

    Kaia Ambrose is an independent evaluation consultant, previously holding positions at the Caribbean Development Bank’s Office of Independent Evaluation, as well as the role of M&E Advisor at CARE Canada. Since 2001, she has worked with a wide range of organizations in Latin America, Africa and Asia to develop actor-oriented, learning-oriented planning, monitoring and evaluation systems.

  • Rolinda Kirton

    Rolinda Kirton, LLB, is Justice Education Society Guyana Country Representative, for the Strengthening the Criminal Justice in Guyana project. Prior, the Project Manager for the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and later for the University of Toronto, in the Guyana Diabetes Care Project; and a Peace-building and Psychosocial-Support consultant with UNDP and UNICEF.

  • Sonia Poulin

    Sonia Poulin is CEO of the Justice Education Society with 25+ years of leadership experience within the legal and justice sectors in the areas of law reform, legal information & research, legal education & technology, and international development. Committed to access to justice and human rights, she has contributed to numerous boards and committees at the regional, national and international levels.

References

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Published

2023-02-04

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

Criminal Justice System Capacity Building: Lessons from a Longitudinal Training Project in Guyana. (2023). Salus Journal, 9(2), 45-56. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/132