Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
HEAD OF the Department of Correctional Services, Major Richard Reese, has proposed the implementation of a special team within the penal system, to respond to emergencies in the maximum and medium-security prisons in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine.
"The response team should be in place by the end of January," Commissioner Reese told The Gleaner yesterday.
While not disclosing what the strength of the unit will be, Commissioner Reese said each team will comprise six correctional officers. The department has already secured the vehicles to transport the officers from one institution to the other.
"Their task will include patrolling the institutions, securing crime scenes inside the prisons until the arrival of the police. They will also respond to emergencies within the institutions," the commissioner of corrections reported.
In the meantime, the department intends to increase its strength by 150 over the next 12 months. The Horizon Remand Centre in Kingston has been upgraded to an adult correctional centre, which has paved the way for a reduction in the prison population at other institutions.
According to Commissioner Reese, the New Broughton Correctional Centre in Manchester will re-open today. He said the population at the packed Tower Street Correctional Centre has dwindled down to 1,630. Before that, it was 1,760. That penal facility was built to house 850 inmates.
Come next month inmates who have been assessed and processed will be transferred from the island's two maximum security prisons to medium and low security facilities such as Tamarind Farm in St. Catherine and Richmond in St. Mary.
The 50-bed hospital ward at the Tower Street facility is scheduled to re-open next month; this should further decrease the number of inmates locked away behind bars.
