Reassessing Conditions of “Prison” in Jamaica

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567720922283
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• Subject Matter: Original Articles

Original Article

Reassessing Conditions

of “Prison” in Jamaica

Dacia Latoya Leslie

1

Abstract

Jamaican maximum-security correctional facilities are largely identified by their extremely poor,

anachronistic, and inhuman conditions of custody. This overriding identity shelves the positive

influence of reforms that have taken place or are currently underway. By drawing on interviews

conducted with 55 inmates and nine correctional staff, secondary analyses, and the International

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966), this article examines the degree to which

recommendations from the “Improving Prison Conditions in the Caribbean” Conference have

been implemented in the Jamaican context. The results suggest that since the Conference,

noticeable steps have been taken by the Jamaican state to improve the quality of the rehabi-

litation experience against the backdrop of challenges of size and competing priorities. How-

ever, such improvements are not necessarily the direct result of the implementation of the

Conference recommendations. Despite the improvements evidenced, it is argued that more

meaningful reforms are required if more inmates are to be enabled to lead crime-free and

productive lives upon release. This article provides contemporary insights into the improved

conditions of imprisonment in Jamaica and makes recommendations on how serious offenders

in the care of Jamaica’s correctional service can be better enabled to experience effective (not

successful) reintegration.

Keywords

reintegration, correctional services, prison reform, prisoners’ rights, ICCPR

It is well known that conditions in Jamaican police lockups and correctional institutions (not

prisons

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) are in need of improvement (see Chevigny, 1993; Henry-Lee, 2005; The Death Penalty

Project, 2011; Vasciannie, 2002). At least, only one of the three maximum-security facilities that

house adults serving a prison sentence

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—Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (TSACC)

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—is

overcrowded, wherein it is operating 90%above capacity. The TSACC is also not fit for purpose

since it was built almost 175 years ago, and its architectural design has not been updated to reflect

1

Crime Prevention & Offender Management Research Cluster, Canada-CARICOM Faculty Leadership Programme, Sir

Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica

Corresponding Author:

Dacia Latoya Leslie, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), The University of the West Indies,

Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Email: dacia.leslie@uwimona.edu.jm

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567720922283

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2022, Vol. 32(1)

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the changing criminal justice landscape and minimize the negative effects of increasing urbaniza-

tion. However, the conditions of custody vary from facility to facility for various reasons including

the Jamaican state’s attempt to institute prison security categories and classify inmates based on their

trial status, age, gender, level of dangerousness, risk of harm, sexuality, and good behavior.

There are 11 correctional facilities in Jamaica. Of the seven correctional ce nters for adults,

Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre (TFACC) is the only medium-security facility and it

only houses male offenders. Both Richmond Farm for men and New Broughton for senior male

offenders are low-security and open. The Horizon remand facility caters to needs of both male and

female adult remandees although it is classified as maximum-security. This gender dynamic

embedded in the classification system of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), which

falls under the policy direction of the Ministry of National Security and whose mandate is to secure

the safe custody of inmates and promote their positive behavioral change, is not surprising. It is

widely recognized that women inmates c onstitute a minority in a male-dominate d correctional

service environment and, as such, their gender-specific needs are often neglected.

Women continue to account for less than 10%of the custodial population in Jamaica. Those

sentenced to prison are housed at Fort Augusta Adult Co rrectional Centre (FAACC), which is

maximum-security. However, after more than 200 years of being in operation in Portmore,

St. Catherine on lands owned by the Port Authority of Jamaica, in 2017, the original building of

the FAACC was decommissioned due to health and safety concerns at the facility and its vulner-

ability to natural disasters. As a result, women housed in the FAACC building were relocated to the

South Camp Rehabilitation Centre in the parish of St. Andrew. Even so, aged and failing structures

in major correctional institutions continue to threaten the security of inmates and staff and remain

supportive of escapes, prison riots, and self-harming behavior among the custodial populace.

The unavailability of medium-se curity facilities for women and girls in Jamaica also raises

concerns about the degree to which the needs of women and girls are being met. There are four

juvenile correctional centers. Hill Top is a maximum-security facility for boys who received Cor-

rectional Orders issued by the courts. South Camp is also a maximum-security facility but only

caters to girls who received Correctional Orders. Boys on remand (awaiting trial) are detained at

Metcalfe Street Secure Juvenile Centre, which is also maximum security. Rio Cobre is the only

medium-security juvenile correctional facility that caters only to boys.

In times past, overcrowding and other related issues have led to the endangerment of children left

in the care of the DCS. In 2009, the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre was destroyed by fire

claiming the lives of seven girls and causing the injury of a number of others. Correctional reforms

following the tragedy included the discontinued detention of “uncontrollable” children in adult

correctional facilities an d efforts to ensure that child rema ndees and offenders are detain ed in

separate remand, and correctional centers were intensified. However, in 2012 (3 years later), when

fieldwork for the current study commenced, child offenders were still being housed and receiving

educational instruction with adult inmates. Even children identified as uncontrollable or disorderly

are currently being housed in juvenile correctional centers with children who received Correctional

Orders mainly for shop/housebreaking/larceny. Therefore, while not all correctional facilities in

Jamaica operate as maximum-security institutions that tend to be more restrictive, the system of

classification, particularly for women and girls, requires refinement.

Research shows that objective inmate classification can support the day-to-day management of

the correctional service which ought to be designed in such a manner so as to be responsive to

changes in the criminal justice landscape, crime control strategies, and sociodemographic charac-

teristics and behavior of the custodial population (Carlson, 2015). Austin (2003) identifies six

distinguishing features of an objective classification system being: the use of criteria that works,

monitoring of the system by a centralized classification unit that is adequately staffed with trained

professionals, and the use of monitoring data by the unit to inform the development of policies and

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Leslie