Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
SEVENTY-SIX-year old, Ivan Boroughs, who has been in jail for 29 years, accused of breaking the window of a bank, is to finally face the court on Tuesday.
However, Courtney Day, Senior Resident Magistrate (RM) for Clarendon before whom he will appear, is expected to issue a no-order in the case, allowing him to go free.
"A writ has been prepared and he is to show up in court on Tuesday... we will ask the judge to make a no-order," said Nancy Anderson, executive director of the Legal Aid Council.
Furthermore, the RM will not be able to proceed with the case because records were destroyed by fire at the May Pen Court house during the 1999 gas riots.
"There were no records that can be found for him in Clarendon. Information was destroyed by fire. If they have no papers or no information then there is no case - what happens on Tuesday will just be a formality," Ms. Anderson said.
Mr. Boroughs has been held at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston since December 1972, waiting on a psychiatrist to declare him fit to answer to charges of malicious destruction of property, which were pinned on him when he threw a rock into a bank window in May Pen.
The plight of mentally ill persons forgotten in jail came to the fore last December, since then 20 went to court and all have since been released, except one who pleaded guilty to the charge of simple larceny.
In Jamaican law, mentally ill persons accused of crimes are deemed "unfit to plead" by the judge who orders them remanded in custody until "fit to plead".
The pronouncement of their mental status has to be done by a psychiatrist who must inform the court of the incarcerated person's status.
But records show that Ivan has been declared fit to plead at least two times, first in 1988 and then in 1998.
"He was declared fit to plead since March of 1998, we also see that another doctor said he was fit to plead in 1988...if this man had gone before the courts in 1972 and, if he had been found guilty, his sentence would not have been 29 years, he would not have been incarcerated at all. He would have been fined," Ms. Anderson said.
Ms. Anderson said she will advise Mr. Boroughs to seek compensation.
Howard Hamilton, Public Defender said in a previous Gleaner report that he will fight for compensation for mentally ill persons who have been locked away in prisons for long periods of time.
But another challenge faces Mr. Boroughs who Ms. Anderson describes as "unable to care for himself" because of his age. He has lost touch with his family and vaguely remembers "having a house somewhere."
He is also said to be so poor that he couldn't afford to live on his own. He is to be placed in a home for the indigent.
