President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has issued a stark warning about the growing influence of gangs inside secondary schools across the Caribbean, calling the trend a “pandemic” that threatens the long-term security of the region. Speaking at the opening of the Senior Officers’ Conference 2026 of the Guyana Prison Service at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Monday, the head of state urged schools, families, religious bodies and community leaders to close ranks around vulnerable young people before criminal networks claim them.
Ali framed the problem not as a matter of policing alone, but as a symptom of deeper social failures — broken homes, poverty, trauma, absent role models and the pull of negative influences. He argued that meaningful crime prevention must begin long before a young person ever encounters the justice system, pointing to community networks as a critical first line of defence. “If we can bring the religious community and civil society as part of this movement and identify at-risk homes in a community, we will be able to address these challenges at the root cause,” he said.
The President was direct in his call to action. “We have to get into those schools. We have to get into those communities. We have to get into those homes,” he declared, urging civil society organisations, religious institutions and professionals living within communities to work together to identify at-risk households early and steer children toward positive opportunities. The message was clear: waiting for the justice system to act is waiting too long.
