Jamaica to address overcrowding in prisons
Friday, April 9, 2004
KINGSTON, Jamaica: The Jamaican Ministry of
National Security is moving to address the overcrowding in the island’s Adult
Correctional Service Centres by repairing these facilities and revising the
classification of inmates. Minister of
National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips who was before the Standing Finance
Committee on Tuesday said, “what we are seeking to do is first of all repair
some of the buildings so that they can be made applicable and reduce the
congestion.” The Minister was responding to
questions from Member of Parliament Delroy Chuck, who pointed out that the
institutions were “woefully” overcrowded. Dr.
Phillips told the committee that the Ministry was also looking at reviewing
the classification of prisoners to address overcrowding. “We are looking at
the reclassification of prisoners and transferring them to other institutions,
along side that, we are trying to upgrade some of the security arrangements at
some of the other institutions so that it can take some of the less dangerous
prisoners out there.” The Minister said that
currently in the system, reclassification of prisoners was done twice per
month. However, Mr. Chuck said that this should be done more frequently,
adding that the overcrowding was a result of short-term prisoners being sent
to District prisons. “Probably 40 per cent of
the prison population right now should not be in prison, for the simple
reason, they are there because they can’t pay the fines. These are not high
risk prisoners, the Court has fined them but they can’t pay the fine so they
are there,” Mr. Chuck pointed out. Minister
Phillips also disclosed that another solution to the overcrowding was the
construction of a new penal institution.
Answering questions about the parole system, Dr. Phillips said: “We are going
to be undertaking a review of the parole system because we actually believe
that we need to develop a system where any person who reaches the point of
eligibility should automatically receive a hearing and the discretion about
the hearing should be removed”.
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