THE GOVERNMENT continues to give this country more promises than deeds. Take the case of the Horizon Adult Remand Centre, Bumper Hall, Spanish Town Road, St. Andrew, which was opened with so much fanfare at the end of October last year.
Built at the former Things Jamaican site, it was contracted to cost $314 million. But by the time it was finished, there had been a 23 per cent overrun, pushing the cost of the project to $442 million.
At the formal opening of the centre, K.D. Knight, who had by then been given his marching orders as Minister of National Security, was ecstatic. "Overcrowding in our lock-ups," he gushed, "will now be a thing of the past."
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson who actually did the honours, formally opening the building, announced proudly that the problems of overcrowding and escapes from police station lock-ups would from then be significantly reduced.
As he explained it, the state-of-the-art remand centre would hold up to 1,024 persons who had been ordered remanded in custody to await their trial - 994 males and 30 females.
But what has been the stark, shameful reality? The maximum security Horizon Adult Remand Centre which was billed as a model for remand centres in the Caribbean, has remained largely unoccupied.
In the meantime prisoners ordered by the courts to be remanded in custody to await their trial, continue to be packed in cells almost reminiscent of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
How have there not been tragedies similar to that in which Agana Barrett, Ian Forbes and Vassell Brown suffocated in a tiny cell at the Constant Spring Police Station lock-up, St. Andrew, in October 1992, heaven knows.
But overcrowding is not the only problem. So we have the shame of two policemen having to guard a grand total of 132 prisoners this week at the Spanish Town Police Station lock-up, St. Catherine. It's a wonder, and to their credit, that only 17 prisoners escaped.
What is the point of constructing this expensive, showpiece remand centre if it is not being fully used? What's the point of giving the police basket to carry water by forcing them to tend these crammed, dehumanising lock-ups when space and facilities for keeping prisoners on remand go abegging at Horizon Adult Remand Centre? Is it that there are not enough warders to operate the centre fully occupied? If that's the answer, what is being done about training warders to take up the jobs or dealing speedily with cases of the 800 warders who were sent on leave some two years ago for protesting allegedly illegally the re-appointment of the then Commissioner of Corrections?
The continuing under-utilisation of the remand centre is not only a stark example of government waste, but of callous and inhumane treatment of prisoners on remand and the injudicious assignment of the police personnel it is taking to guard them.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
