This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Part Four: Conclusions


public. Te report was damning of the standard of treatment received by the girls at the centre and the events which led to the fire. It made detailed recommendations for the Jamaican juvenile detention system. In addressing Parliament on the report in March 2010, Prime Minister Bruce Golding stated that resource constraints and the heavy burden placed on officers working in such facilities ‘cannot explain or excuse negligence or inertia’. He also observed that the Department of Correctional Services should no longer control and run juvenile detention facilities, outlining plans to amend legislation in order to place juvenile remand and correctional facilities under the remit of the Child Development Agency.41


It is hoped that the Armadale report will result in an overhaul of the juvenile detention regime in Jamaica, and provoke debate on the conditions in the penal system as a whole. However, if past experience is any guide, there will be little substantive improvement of the lot of the island’s detainees and inmates. As long ago as 1991 a Jamaican task force on Correctional Services observed that:


Te policy in colonial days, which has been scrupulously adhered to since independence, was to have a commission of enquiry at regular intervals but not to pay much heed to their major recommendations as inevitably the cost of implementing these recommendations would have been considerable.42


In fact the Department of Correctional Services does recognise the need for an improvement in correctional centre standards. Following the disturbances at SCACC in 2000, the Government announced plans to construct a modern high security facility on the island to relieve the pressure upon SCACC and TSACC.43


At a meeting with the


author of this report in August 2009, the Commissioner of Corrections confirmed that these plans for a ‘super prison’ still exist, but stated they had been shelved indefinitely due to a lack of funding.


Te knowledge of the need for reform at a senior level within the Department is reflected at ground level in the correctional centres. During the visits, many correctional officers lamented the lack of available resources. Tey complained of low wage rates (particularly in comparison with Jamaican police officers), but also of the negative effect that overcrowding and a lack of constructive activity have upon the wellbeing of staff and inmates alike. Officers stated that they were forced to work with old and faulty equipment, and made pleas for their particular areas, such as the storeroom or the barbershop – often even quoting the brand names of equipment they specifically


41 See Statement to Parliament by the Hon. Bruce Golding, Prime Minister, on the Report of the Armadale Enquiry, 2nd March 2010,


further analysis on this issue, see the observations of Manfred Nowak in Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, United Nations General Assembly, 11 October 2010, p.8, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/


dpage_e.aspx?m=103 42


Ibid, p.28. 43


See Knight, K. D., Minister of National Security and Justice, Letter to the Jamaica Gleaner, ‘Knight Clarifies Prison Plans’, 22nd May 2001, http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20010522/letters/letters1.html.


55


http://www.opm.gov.jm/news_and_public_affairs/statement_by_the_prime_minister_report_of_the_armadale_enquiry_tuesday_march. For


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com