At
the end of the visit, you are deaf, tired, frustrated, sweaty and
unsure about what was really said to you by your friend or relative,
since the shouting in unison by all parties in the line-up leaves
you in a total mess.
By the time I had made my second visit to Remand Yard, I had mastered
the art of sign language, since that was the only meaningful way
to communicate.
Not even animals should be treated in this manner.
And don’t tell me that they are prisoners, so they deserve
what they get.
Firstly, they have not yet been convicted, which means they are
innocent until proven guilty, so they deserve their rights and self-respect.
And, secondly, if you ever find yourself on the wrong side of law,
(don’t tell me it is not possible; imagine you drive and one
day you are involved in a fatal accident and you are charged with
manslaughter and found guilty …) would you want to be so treated?
Jail should not be a hotel room, I agree, but it has been said ad
nauseam, and I also agree with the view, that how you treated the
lowest strata in your society (prisoners) is a good indication of
how humane is your society.
I repeat, I am not here advocating champagne and five-star treatment
for our prisoners.
But believe me when I tell you it is total madness to visit a prisoner
at Arouca’s Remand Yard, and I have often wondered how such
a situation could have survived into the latter 20th and certainly
the 21st Century.
That “shouting match” and the slop buckets must go now.
Minister of State Fitzgerald Hinds, who is responsible for the prisons,
must see to that as a matter of urgency.
The reports are numerous of the tales of brutality practised by
some prisons officers.
They can’t all be untrue.
There are horror stories of prisons officers forming two lines and
supposedly bad-behaved prisoners being ordered to walk down the
centre and being beaten with batons, kicks and cuffs by every officer
in the line-up.
Before he reaches halfway down the line he is a bloody mess, but
each officer must still get in his lash.
I know that for every denial made by Rougier and his brother that
that and other acts of brutality never occurred (maybe it was always
done in their absence), 10 prisoners and ex-prisoners would stand
up and tell of their experiences.
Some prisons officers, I am told, are routinely brutal.
And that is one of the reasons why some of them have been gunned
down over the years, some ex-prisoners insist.
And what about the few who harass the girlfriends and wives of prisoners
and boast about it?
Prisons officers must be firm with prisoners, I agree, because the
day the “jailees” stop respecting them is the day that
law and order will break down in the prisons.
But what is “firm” is a lesson, I am sure, that has
been drilled into the heads of prisoner officer trainees many times;
some, no doubt, having their own interpretation of it nevertheless,
hence….
In the mid-1990s, I was part of the Alternative To Custody (ATC)
Group initially headed by English Criminologist Professor Maureen
Cain, who was then lecturing at the University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine.
The membership included people like Hazel Thompson-Ahye, Catherine
Ali, Abbot Hildebrand Greene, Sister Ethna Reagan, Desmond Cartey,
Askeran Mansingh, Mary King, Bishop Clive Abdulah, Emely Thomas,
Norma James, Monica Barnes, Kamla Coore, Colin Rosales, Annette
Valdez, Lystra Hagley, Cherryl Herrera etc.
It was a well-organised group with a proper Constitution and a mission
statement which acknowledged that offenders should be treated as
persons who have the potential for good, respect for the rights
of victims etc.
We met regularly, had prisoners as associate members, organised
letter writing with them, visited them, carried necessities for
them and also arranged classes and specialised training for the
youths at the Youth Training Centre (YTC).
We had also forged relationships with ex-prisoners, some like Rosales
who joined us.
Two of our main goals were prisons reform and the use of alternatives
to prisons, like community service etc.
Our greatest moment came in April 1997 or 1998 when we hosted an
International Conference on alternatives to custody and penal reform,
financially aided by the international grouping, Penal Reform International
(PRI).
The then Chief Justice, Prime Minister, Attorney General, Director
of Public Prosecution -- Michael de la Bastide, Basdeo Panday, Ramesh
Maharaj and Mark Mohammed respectively -- were there.
So, too, were Justice Garwe of Zimbabwe, Justice Carl Rattray of
Jamaica, Carlisle Greaves of Barbados, the then Commissioners of
Prisons of TnT and Grenada.
Wendy Singh and the world-recognised authority on prisons reform,
Vivien Stern, also graced us with their presence and knowledge.
It was a successful two-day seminar, which also attracted magistrates,
judges, attorneys-at-law, police officers, ex-prisoners, etc.
We were onto something good.
Then ATC folded.
By then Professor Cain had returned to England and is wont to happen
to most groups, only a handful of us were carrying ATC.
But people like Thompson-Ahye, Norma James, Mary King and I refused
to continue to be part of a group where demands were being made
for payment for volunteer work.
This thing called money is really the devil’s plaything, I
tell you.
A few dollars from PRI and the whole thing mash up.
But that is by the way.
I am not claiming a nexus between ATC’s short existence and
some of the revolutionary things that are now happening in the local
prisons system.
However, ATC may well have laid the foundation for them.
Yes, I am excited about the changes in the prisons system that I
understand Minister Hinds and Commissioner Rougier are playing a
big role in bringing about.
I am talking about the recent decision to take long-serving prisoners
to the beach late last year, causing most of them to stare in amazement
at the changes to landscape since they last saw outside the prisons
walls so many years ago; the decision to allow the children of female
inmates to spend time with them; the pardons given to Trudy Cornwall
and Marlon Alleyne (even though the pardoning of prisoners has happened
before in TnT) and the ongoing work at YTC with inmates entering
and winning national essay competitions, among other achievements.
And so many other good work which I understand is quietly taking
place each day involving ordinary prisons officers.
Even the appointment of a Communications Specialist, S. Ramsaran,
to liaise with the media etc. is a revolutionary step, given the
fact that our prison is a closed-system; very closed.
Ask Stern, who did a comprehensive study on prisons in the Caribbean
some years ago.
I recommend her work to Hinds.
But this small step behind the prison walls is a huge step for mankind.
Down the road it will make a difference in recidivism, in crime
in the society.
You don’t have to take it from me, but I am sure the experts
have told Rougier and Hinds that.
Probably you are saying it doesn’t take much to get me excited.
But in life, the small things are what count, and these small changes
in our prisons are huge achievements for the society, as far as
I am concerned.
Yes, amidst all the bad things that are happening in the Ministry
of National Security -- corrupt cops, inefficient cops, run away
crime, these developments in the prisons system are really Good
News.
I am really excited about them.
Keep it up. |
