By Glenroy Sinclair,
Staff Reporter
THE CRIMINAL underworld has taken a tighter grip on two of the island's maximum penal institutions, squeezing thousands of dollars in cash from inmates in what appears to be a deepening extortion racket.
"Inmates have been making demands from other inmates and if their demands are not met, then it can be serious trouble," said Rev. Renford Maddix, who is one of three chaplains working with the Correctional Services Department.
"If we find out that an inmate's life is in danger because of such problems, then we try and arrange a transfer," he said.
Last week, relatives of inmates incarcerated at the St. Catherine District Prison complained to The Gleaner that prisoners were being pressured by other inmates to provide from between $2,000 to as much as $50,000 in return for protection. This money was then reportedly passed on during visits and from the collecting inmates to their relatives.
Three years ago, Rufus Duncan was attacked and stabbed all over the body by fellow inmates at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (formerly General Penitentiary) who kept demanding money from him.
"They stabbed me up again a year later because they believed I was rich, they wanted my money," Mr. Duncan who is serving an eight-year term for manslaughter," told The Gleaner last week.
Responding to reports of the extortion, Commissioner of Corrections Lieutenant Colonel John Prescod said he had not received any reports of extortion. The Commissioner further said if he received any such reports, he would immediately conduct an investigation into the matter.
Former medical doctor for the St. Catherine District Prison, Dr. Raymoth Notice said extortion was a common thing in the penal institutions, a problem, he said, which also contributed to the number of killings in the prisons.
"People are not only extorting money but also food, clothing and other valuables," said Dr. Notice.
He said there were also "rackets" where inmates, through their relatives, paid large sums of money for inmates to be placed either at a safer or more comfortable sections of the prison.
"A lot of offers were made to me which I refused," Dr. Notice said.
It is alleged inmates who are from a not-so-poor family background and cannot cope with the prison system, are offered protection and more comfortable "accommodation", compared to other inmates, but for a fee.
Reports about the extortion emerged in June last year during the enquiry into mass beatings of more than 100 inmates at St. Catherine District Prison by soldiers and prison warders.
During the enquiry, a member of the so-called "Naa Live Fi Nutten Posse" confirmed they demanded protection fees from other inmates. The report from Justice Lloyd Ellis has still not been handed in to the government.
