Prisons and detention centers were severely overcrowded and presented serious threats to life and health. The UN special rapporteur on torture in a 2010 report called the conditions of detention “appalling” and in some cases “inhumane,” although it did not find instances of torture. The government could not protect the physical safety of prisoners. With a maximum rated capacity of 4,402 inmates, the corrections system contained approximately 4,000 adult inmates, including at least 200 women. Another 366 juveniles remained in detention in juvenile-only facilities. However, there was considerable overcrowding, since rated capacity reflected both high- and low-security facilities, some capacity was unusable due to staffing shortfalls, and most inmates were held in high-security facilities. Although the law prohibits the incarceration of children in adult prisons in most cases, approximately 60 juveniles were held in adult jails. At least 14 prisoners died in detention during the year.
Detainees were not clearly separated according to their different stages of criminal procedure. Persons detained without charges, remandees, and convicted persons were held together in the same facility and often shared cells.
The government failed to protect the physical safety of prisoners. For example, on April 4, an inmate plucked out the eye of another prisoner awaiting transfer from the Port Antonio lock-up to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility. On July 6, Garfield Campbell was electrocuted as he attempted to open the metal grille door to his cell at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Institution in Spanish Town. The government never clarified how the door became electrified, and no one was prosecuted for the suspected homicide. Suicide also remained a problem. Over the course of two weeks in September, prison authorities at the same institution in Spanish Town failed to prevent two inmates from hanging themselves with electrical cord.
Overcrowding and poor living conditions remained severe problems. At the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Institution in Spanish Town, inmates shared dark, unventilated, and dirty cells. Designed to hold 800 inmates, the facility held 1,200. Constructed to hold 50 detainees, each cell held an average of 138 detainees. Police officers at the facility reported that the mentally ill detainees were locked up in the bathroom of the holding section. Some detainees also were held in the prison’s medical facility.
The Tower Street Adult Correctional Center, located in downtown Kingston, held approximately 1,500 inmates, exceeding the 800-person maximum capacity for which the facility was built. Men and women were incarcerated in separate facilities, although female prisoners generally were incarcerated under better conditions than their male counterparts. Cells in some facilities had little natural light, inadequate artificial light, and poor ventilation. Hunt’s Bay lock-up held prisoners in a cage-like structure open to the elements and the gazes of passersby. Detainees, crowded in numbers of up to six persons per cell, mixed with garbage and urine. Potable water generally was available, but detainees were required to provide their own containers to carry water.
The women’s prison, Fort Augusta, with at least 200 inmates, had no indoor water supply. Inmates had to obtain water from a central source in containers they provided themselves. Inmates who did not own a container could not bathe. Female juveniles also were held at Fort Augusta.
Conditions at the juvenile lock-ups were poor. Investigations into the Moneague, Half-Way Tree, Admiral Town, and Glengoffe juvenile detention facilities revealed that minors reported contracting fungus from the conditions in the cells and from sleeping on cold concrete. Juvenile inmates also complained of roaches crawling over them during the day and at night. Juveniles at the Admiral Town lock-up were let out of their cells for only five minutes each day to bathe and use the toilet. At both Admiral Town and Half-Way Tree, the minor inmates were provided with bottles in which to urinate.
Throughout the system medical care was poor, primarily a result of having only three full-time doctors and one full-time nurse on staff. Four part-time psychiatrists cared for at least 225 diagnosed mentally ill inmates in 12 facilities across the island. Prisoners in need of dentures and unable to eat the prison food encountered difficulties gaining access to a dentist. Prison food was poor, and prison authorities frequently ignored inmates’ dietary restrictions.
Nonviolent youth offenders were under the jurisdiction of the social services agency and generally were sent to unsecured halfway houses (called “places of safety” or “juvenile remand centers”) after being removed from their homes. However, because the law does not clearly define an “uncontrollable child,” a large number of minors were classified as uncontrollable and detained for long periods without regard to the nature of their offenses.
Although the law prohibits children being held in detention or lock-up with adults, approximately 60 juveniles remained in two of the adult facilities. Reports indicated that even in cases when police attempted to have officers from the social services agency retrieve minor detainees, the agency failed to do so, thereby forcing the police to comingle them with adults. Officers handling juvenile detainees were trained in child psychology, behavioral modification techniques, child-management strategies, and national and international human rights laws.
Reports of physical abuse of prisoners by guards continued, despite efforts by the government to remove abusive guards and improve procedures. INDECOM received eight reports of abuse by prison officials, none of which had been resolved at year’s end.
Although prisoners were able to make complaints to the Public Defender’s Office without censorship, and representatives were mostly able to enter the detention centers and interview prisoners without hindrance, official complaints and investigations were infrequent.
The government allowed private groups, voluntary and religious organizations, local and international human rights organizations, and the media to visit prisons and monitor prison conditions, and such visits took place during the year.
The Office of the Children's Advocate again made a number of recommendations to Parliament, including a request that the law be revised to limit to 90 days the amount of time children spend in lock-up. Parliament, however, did not address the issue.
The government similarly took no tangible actions to address the UN Special Rapporteur’s findings that officers at the Hunt’s Bay Police Station were “very obstructive, uncooperative, aggressive, and openly threatened his team during their visit.” However, reacting to what she deemed “terrible conditions” in the prisons, the chief justice instructed all resident magistrates to conduct regular visits of police lock-ups and to forward their observations to her office in writing. She counseled the magistrates to remind police of detainees’ rights to due process.
The Department of Corrections opened the Metcalf Juvenile Remand Center in Kingston in July. The facility is designed to house a maximum of 208 male juveniles from ages 12 to 17. It is a pretrial facility, and the number of detainees varied daily. A typical number of people housed at the facility was 131 boys with an additional 50 men separated from the youth. Metcalf was built to international standards, with adequate space and a state-of-the-art fire escape and suppression system. There is a classroom and one-on-one instruction at the Metcalf facility. Female juveniles were still housed at St. Augustus, although a facility for remanded girls similar to Metcalf was set for construction in Stony Hill. The commissioner of corrections was addressing the need to provide education for minors, which is technically compulsory until age 16.