Tougher penalties coming for prison contrabands
Published:Thursday | October 15, 2020 | 3:05 PM
Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Matthew Samuda, says tougher laws are coming to penalise persons who take contraband, especially electronic devices, into correctional centres.
Samuda, who has responsibility for the correctional services, told a digital press conference earlier today that the proposed law is expected to be tabled and approved by Parliament within three months.
He made it clear that under the new law the smuggling of contraband into prisons will attract serious penalties.
“It will also become a crime for persons within our facilities who are inmates to be found with contraband. It will be treated in a tiered system. Persons who are found with electronic devices that allow them to communicate externally will be treated more harshly in the new act,” Samuda declared.
Samuda noted that the current Corrections Act is archaic and the ministry would take to Cabinet, for approval shortly, new legislation governing the correctional services.
He said that this proposed law would create a modern legal framework for the correctional services.
In March, the Department of Correctional Services had said that sanctions would be laid against murder convict Adidja Palmer, better known as Vybz Kartel, following the seizure of contraband in his cell.
At the time, it said that penalties would also be imposed against other inmates over similar recoveries.
In April, Opposition Spokesperson on Justice, Donna Scott Mottley, called for a thorough probe into the actions of correctional officers monitoring Kartel.
“There obviously has to be a thorough investigation of the matter, and if there are persons there who are breaching the rules, we ought to know who has breached it and they ought to be sanctioned for it because we expect them to enforce the rules, not assist others in breaking them,” Scott Mottley told The Gleaner.
“I haven’t heard of any action being proposed, but they cannot leave this matter as it is. It has to be investigated because if this is happening, we don’t know what other sorts of contraband are entering into the prison population,” she added.
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