By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterHEAD OF the Correctional Services, Major Richard Reese, says the island's adult institutions are coming under increased pressure from a combined 49 per cent excess in capacity.
"Currently we have 4,023 inmates, an excess in capacity of 1,323 in our adult institutions," the recently-appointed Commissioner of Corrections disclosed on Monday evening, as he addressed a meeting of the Rotary Club of St. Andrew North.
The prison population at the Tower Street Correctional Centre in East Kingston currently stands at 1,741, almost three times the ideal capacity of 650, he said. By contrast, the Horizon Remand Centre, off Spanish Town Road, currently houses 418 remandees despite a capacity for 1,038.
"It (Horizon) is currently being retrofitted to accommodate remandees from police lockups," Major Reese said.
Yesterday, Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips admitted, "We have been in contact with a commercial organisation about building a new facility. We recognise that the conditions in the correctional facilities are unacceptable."
In January, Dr. Phillips promised to provide significant support for the Correctional Service in the 2003/2004 budget. The $1.9 billion budget for the Correctional Service this year represents 13 per cent of the Security Ministry's entire budget. This is up from the nine per cent the Department of Correctional Services received last year. But, Major Reese said that the allocation for this financial year was not enough to run the severely overcrowded prisons.
"Given these constraints, the Department must resort to soliciting outside support through sensitising the public, cutting cost and developing alternative means of generating income, through presenting the business community with profitable and attractive opportunities, as we envisage privatising some of our services," Major Reese said.
The Department, he noted, is forced to develop other means of attracting income. "The level of overcrowding and the lack of resources hinder the department from operating at an optimum," he said.
It is costing taxpayers a staggering $366,402 to keep each inmate in custody and another $98,240 to service one parolee, Major Richard Reese said.
The cost of custody, he told the gathering of Rotarians, "compares favourably to other countries with an average annual cost per inmate of US$18,000 to US$30,000." The servicing of parolees includes employee compensation, travel and subsistence, and purchase of goods.
