By Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterTHE ISLAND'S two maximum security prisons are bursting at the seams, housing about twice the number of inmates they were intended to accommodate.
Currently, some 1,791 inmates are crammed into the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre which was designed to house about 850 prisoners. The St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre is in a similar situation. That maximum security facility was built for 650 prisoners but now accommodates 1,218.
Despite the massive overcrowding in the two prisons, the Govern-ment's plan to build a new maximum security prison has still not taken on substance.
"The Ministry of National Security is in active discussion with a UK firm with a view to the development of a proposal and the financing for such a facility," Attorney-General Senator A.J. Nicholson told The Senate last Friday.
He was answering questions posed by Jamaica Labour Party Senator, Bruce Golding. Senator Nicholson added that discussions were taking place with the UK firm with the aim of having it operate the maximum security facility.
"The negotiations with that firm are still to be finalised, including arrangements as to a final figure for the actual cost," the Attorney-General said.
In 1997, the Government first gave a commitment to construct a new maximum security prison to ease overcrowding in the existing facilities. Firm announcements were made and completion was scheduled for the end of 1999.
In June 2000, when that had not materialised, then National Security and Justice Minister, K.D. Knight, announced that new plans had been worked out for the facility to be constructed on a deferred-financing arrangement with the work set to commence in January 2001 and completed by June 2002.
That, too, did not materialise. In April 2001, the then Minister of Information, Maxine Henry-Wilson, announced that different arrangements had been made with a United States firm to build and possibly operate the new facility at Tamarind Farm at a cost of US$71.2 million. Work was set to begin in July 2001. Recently, National Security Minister, Peter Phillips, conceded that those arrangements had fallen through.
Meanwhile, the prisons continue to have frequent outbreaks and disturbances.
More than 27 prisoners have escaped from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre since 1999. The latest break-out took place last year when three prisoners escaped by cutting through several steel bars and using sheets and towels tied together to climb down from the walls of the maximum security institution.
During his response to Senator Golding's questions, Senator Nicholson disclosed that over the past five years some 3,397 prisoners were admitted to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre while only 1,168 of inmates were released.
At the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre, some 7,360 persons were admitted over the past five years while only 4,941 were released.
