A plea for the mentally ill
published: Monday | February 10, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I NOTE with interest the outrage expressed by the Jamaica Bar Association in regards to the search and seizure activities inflicted on two lawyers. I certainly support any call to accountability for any action that flies in the face of a person's constitutional rights, as this action seems to have done.
I would hope that the Bar Association would become equally demonstrative over the loss of constitutional rights for the scores of mentally ill incarcerated in Jamaica's prisons. Many of these individuals have been effectively remanded without trial for decades, lost and forgotten. Despite their being labelled as mentally ill, they are nevertheless human beings, citizens of Jamaica, and should be beneficiaries of the constitutional presumption of innocence until proven guilty before a court of law.
The fact that so many have never been afforded this right and have been forced to live for years in subhuman conditions without due process must surely be considered a violation of their constitutional rights.
The mentally ill in our midst are a population many of us would rather not deal with, but I would suggest that despite the irritation and annoyance most 'mad men' seem to engender, they remain our brothers worthy of, and entitled to, the rights we all enjoy. I encourage the Jamaica Bar Association to become public advocates for these people that so desperately need it.
