Opposition appalled gov't MPs vote against hearing from State of Emergency detainees

The minority members of Parliament's Internal and External Affairs Committee say they are appalled at the vote during Tuesday's sitting denying State of Emergency detainees and their families a hearing.

Since last week, the Committee has been looking at the operation of the States of Public Emergency in St James, St Catherine North Police Division; and sections of the Corporate Area.

St Ann South East Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna had put forward a motion for the Jamaica Constabulary Force as well as State of Emergency detainees and their families to appear before the committee. 

Four government members voted against and three Opposition members for the motion.

"This has effectively shut the door in the faces of the detainees and their families, denying them the opportunity to give a first-hand narrative of their detention experience and the conditions existing in the detention centres," said Hanna in a statement issued late Tuesday.

The committee, however, agreed that the police should be invited to the next sitting in January 2019.

Earlier, Public Defender Arlene Harrison-Henry said with each extension of the States of Public Emergency her office has received less cooperation from the police.

Harrison-Henry who was making her second appearance before the committee in less than a week, said there has been a growing sense that the Office of the Public Defender is interfering and/or impeding the work of the police. 

"We’re very clear in our minds that we support all legitimate law enforcement activities,” Harrison-Henry declared.

She said the situation culminated on October 5 when members of her office went on a routine visit to the Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town which houses detainees from the St Catherine North State of Emergency.

She said an inspector from her office was interrogating a shackled detainee and when he asked a cop if he had advised the detainee of his right to have an attorney present. 

In a report on the incident, the Public Defender said the cop accused the inspector of obstructing the police and was “regaled with a string of obscenities”.

The report noted that the police officer said that the Office of the Public Defender was telling a police officer of “… over 31 years of service how to do his f%*#@($- job.”

“He said further, that he was going to log that he was obstructed from doing his work by the Public Defender and her team and he would detain him for 90 days."

Harrison-Henry, revealed, too, that up to last week Friday, a team from her office was told that they could not enter the cells where four women were being held.

"The team was told that there was nothing under the regulations that permit the Public Defender and a team to enter and that the only way we could come inside of the cell is if we took a Justice of the Peace with us. In the interest of our investigations, a JP accompanied us and the ladies were released on Monday after being in custody for 26 days,” she said.

Meanwhile, Harrison-Henry has disclosed that government was providing $300 per day for the provision of three meals for an adult male or female detainee.

Meal costs for detainees
Breakfast - $80
Lunch - $130
Supper - $90

Complaints arising from detainees in States of Emergency
St James - 553
St Catherine North - 86
Kingston Western - 40
Total: 679

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