Jails jammed - Police Civilian Oversight Authority warns Gov't about overcrowding problem plaguing lock-ups
Published:Sunday | June 26, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter
JUST FIVE months shy of the 19th anniversary of a preventable tragedy that snuffed out the lives of three detainees at the Constant Spring police lock-up, and almost two weeks after a Mandeville jailbreak, the result of overcrowding, the perennial problem of overcrowded jail cells looms large as a public-health and social challenge.
Data supplied by the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA) show that the police are still stuffing too many prisoners into jail cells in breach of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF's) policy.
In the wake of the 1992 Constant Spring calamity, the State was forced to pay out millions to the detainees and the family of one of the deceased inmates. Still, the demise of the detainees - Agana Barrett, Ian Forbes, and Vassell Brown - and the millions the State had to pay seemingly have not spurred successive administrations into action against the practice of cramming jails.
The three detainees suffocated to death in October 1992 while in police custody. They were among 19 men packed into a poorly ventilated cell at the time. Twelve of the detainees brought civil-action lawsuits against the Government and were each awarded $200,000.
Some seven years after the death of the inmates, the Government accepted liability for the death of Barrett and reached an out-of-court settlement with his family.
In August last year, some police personnel ominously warned that if nothing was done to remedy the overcrowding, there would likely be a catastrophe akin to the Constant Spring horror.
Assessments conducted by the inspection and monitoring unit of the PCOA at 23 police lock-ups between September 2010 and May 2011 revealed that the Mandeville police lock-up exceeded its gazetted capacity by 70 prisoners. At the Montego Bay Freeport lock-up, the police squeezed an additional 69 prisoners, in sardine-like fashion, into cells that have a total capacity of 130.
Thirteen of the 23 stations with prisoners in custody, which were included in the inspections, exceeded their gazetted cell capacity. Two of the police stations were booked solid while the remaining eight lock-ups had space for more prisoners.
Explosive situation
Charles Dufour, Roman Catholic archbishop of Kingston and chairman of the Police Oversight Civilian Authority told The Sunday Gleaner that his organisation had written to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) High Command (Inspectorate of the Constabulary) and the Ministry of National Security for "corrective action" regarding the potentially explosive situation of overcrowding.
A dense picture painted by the PCOA data could be worse. "Please note that the PCOA does not have detailed information on the number of persons in every police lock-up in the island as the figures are dynamic and will vary on a daily basis according to location and operations for a particular period," noted Dufour, adding that the problem remains a blemish on the already tainted humanitarian garment of Jamaican policing.
In its 2008-2009 annual report, the PCOA members noted that "the physical plant of police stations, and in particular the cells, are in significant need of improvement".
In late August, The Gleaner reported that the Government was contemplating the establishment of a new lock-up facility at Up Park Camp, St Andrew. That move was occasioned by what was being described as unprecedented overcrowding in all police lock-ups across the island. Nothing much has been said or done since then. However, the PCOA believes the construction of new jail cells is the way forward.
"Please bear in mind that the problem of overcrowding is a significant one across the country and has been historically acute at some stations, and in most instances may require the construction and commissioning of additional cell-block capacity for meaningful easement of the overcrowding to be realised."
Even though the police are responsible for physically packing too many prisoners into one cell, the PCOA fingered the Government for ultimate responsibility.
Information provided by Karl Angell, director of communications at the JCF, showed that as at May 25, 2011, almost 2,300 males and females were being held in police lock-ups across the five police divisions. This represents a spike of more than 900 persons when compared to figures published in the JCF's 2007-2008 annual report, which showed that "at the end of the reporting period" for that financial year, there were 1,391 prisoners in police custody, which included 51 females.