Dawn Ritch, Contributor
THE AUTHORITY of Prime Minister P.J. Patterson appears to stop at the gates of Jamaica House. All his Cabinet Ministers operate like Chinese warlords in their own independent fiefdoms.
Nothing else explains the slow and inexorable destruction of Jamaica's financial and nervous system by Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies, nor the unhindered collapse of law and order as the body of the country wastes away under Security Minister K.D. Knight.
The paradox is that any citizen, great or small, who has found it necessary to call upon Prime Minister Patterson's office, reports that he is a marvellously efficient executive. Nevertheless his place in history will be that of our Prime Minister with the most disastrous performance. Since his own office delivers the goods it can, that the rest of his Cabinet fails to do so must mean that his operational capacity as Prime Minister is no more than that of figurehead. It would appear as if his instructions to his Ministers are merely sent to the cleaners along with the rest of the laundry. Fat-cat salaries continue to be paid to the Fat Cats.
I think Mr. Patterson must be as appalled as the rest of the country by Mr. Knight's plan to build a new maximum security prison at a cost of $3 billion.
It is to contain "A chapel, gym, central kitchen, dining area, administrative block, waiting and visiting areas, rooms for social workers, medical, dental, trade work shops, multi-purpose areas (presumably for the viewing of first-run movies), library, recreational areas, laundry and staff facilities.
The last piece of common sense has finally fled the Government. It proposes to install in a brand-new maximum security prison facilities the nation's schools and hospitals sorely need and do not have.
Cost burden
The cost of private security, along with that of electricity, have made this country's production of goods and services uncompetitive. No business from the humblest shop to the greatest Jamaican conglomerate can keep itself open without staggering monthly sums paid to private security firms, or local area dons and enforcers. Without them our eyeballs would be stolen from their sockets.
Insult is now added to injury. Having paid for security from diminishing cash flow Jamaicans must now see our tax dollars diverted to build a world-class resort for criminals.
When I was growing up people who were sent to prison were expected to pay a debt to society. Not pile up more debt for it.
They were not provided therefore the luxury of caterers at fabulous multi-million dollar contracts that a Jamaican school or hospital could only dream of. Indeed they cooked their own food, baked bread and made bricks for commercial sale, and washed clothes both for themselves and the hospitals.
Now they go on general strike when their food is not delivered hot and on time by the caterers, or has too much calaloo. Indeed the prisoners now stroll in and out of prison on personal jaunts sometimes accompanied by their warders. And it is not uncommon for scores to escape at a time, most never recaptured, adding to mayhem already in Jamaica.
They fall out of their hammocks when we didn't know they had any, break their heads and accuse soldiers of having caused it. Prisoners riot when warders want to search their cells to take away their television sets, cellular phones and radios. Indeed the warders can't even get into the cells because only the prisoners have the keys.
Celebrity guests
As a consequence of the sovereignty being exercised by prisoners and recognised by the wider society, maximum security convicts have become celebrity guests on radio shows. There the hosts conduct themselves with a solicitousness which suggests that these convicted felons are mere innocent bystanders in the parade of life. Radio and human rights groups have therefore elevated prisoners to the level of the Montego Bay Street People.
Even the head of the island's Correctional Services, Lt. Col. John Prescod, thinks he is there to please the prisoners. Asked recently whether he didn't think he ought to resign, Mr. Prescod said he would not because "...his boss (Knight) and clients (the prisoners) were satisfied with him."
This is utter madness. We don't need a new maximum security prison. What we need is to make the existing prisons secure as a prison should be. Next we must put only maximum security prisoners in these maximum security prisons instead of this melange of overcrowding caused by mixing minor offences with capital crime.
Judges in Jamaica just routinely seem to lock up everybody who comes before them. Have they never heard of community service as a form of sentence?
Having beggared and slaughtered the civilian population, prisoners have their rest and recreation paid for by their victims' families. This ought to be everybody's definition of injustice. Excepting of course the criminals themselves, who are now reported to be wreathed in smiles when they receive custodial life sentences.
Rehabilitation ought to involve becoming useful to society, not continuing to be a parasite upon it. Forget luxury appointments for the prisoners, and require instead that they make benches and tables for our schools.
