Recordkeeping and the Management of Prisons in Guyana

Learning about prison management in Guyana since independence in 1966 is fraught with difficulty due to the paucity of surviving records. This paper investigates attitudes towards and practices of recordkeeping in order to start developing a historical sociology of recordkeeping in Guyana. Within this framework, prison recordkeeping is explored for the colonial and post-independence periods. The paper ends with a consideration of other sources and methods that are needed to provide a fuller picture of both prison management and the experiences had in prison by prisoners and prison officers.