Inmates start cemetery clean-up

Prison inmates at work in the May Pen Cemetery in West Kingston yesterday, watched by soldiers as they begin a programme which will see them coming to the cemetery three days per week for three months. - Rudolph Brown

ABOUT 50 prisoners equipped with machetes, files and other tools, began cleaning up the May Pen Cemetery in West Kingston under heavy security yesterday.

The inmates, who were drawn from all of the island's adult prisons, will work three days per week under a joint venture between the Department of Correctional Services and the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC).

Town Clerk Errol Greene said yesterday the KSAC had provided nearly $200,000 worth of tools.

Last week he told journalists the Corporation would also provide prisoners with meals and a stipend of less than $500 weekly for over three months to clean up the 88-acre burial ground where operations were affected twice last month following violent clashes in West Kingston. During the period, 17 funerals had to be rescheduled.

Mr. Greene said the prisoners will get the money either monthly or every two weeks to buy toiletries and other necessities.

Other agencies such as the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM), the church and several funeral parlours have pledged to make the project a success. Mr. Greene said he had received a commitment from the Jamaica Baptist Union to help fund the project.

Representatives from these agencies, the police and Custos of St. Andrew, Carmen Stewart, were also on hand for the start of the project yesterday.

At last week's press briefing, reporters were told one aim of the clean-up project, the second in 18 months, was to improve the environment around the $300 million new adult remand centre being built on land previously occupied by Things Jamaican Limited on Bumper Hall Road, Kingston. The centre is expected to be finished at the end of next month.

The first clean-up project came in December 1999 when the Government disbursed $5.5 million under the Lift Up Jamaica programme for the cleaning of the cemetery but work was suspended after KSAC officials complained more than $4 million had been paid out but little work completed.

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