Walker
Denise Clarke, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THERE WERE no happy relatives waiting outside the courtroom, and home for now will be the St. Elizabeth Infirmary, but after 12 years of languishing in prison without trial Carol Walker is happy to be free.
She recalls almost nothing about the person she was before her 12-year incarceration in the Fort Augusta Prison. She gives her age as 21, but looks to be in her early 40s. Before her arrest, she resided somewhere in St. Elizabeth, and is believed to have a daughter living in Manchester. However, the actual whereabouts of her relatives are not known.
Dressed in blue jeans pants, cream coloured shirt, a bright pink knitted blouse, and clutching a small dark handbag under her left arm, Ms. Walker left the Black River courthouse last Thursday to take up residence at the infirmary in Santa Cruz. A large yellow suitcase contained all her possessions.
MENTALLY ILL
Ms. Walker, diagnosed as mentally ill, remembers nothing about the incident which led to her arrest in November 1991, charged with malicious destruction of property. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain a mystery, since the case file cannot be found at the Black River courthouse. She may have appeared in court on the charge, and perhaps was deemed unfit to plea, but the case was never tried. However, on February 20, 1992, Carol Walker arrived at the Fort Augusta Prison in Kingston, to begin what became a 12-year sentence for a crime that normally has three-year-maximum sentence. She perhaps would have served another 12 years, if prison psychiatrists had not notified the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights (IJCHR) of her case.
NOT GETTING BETTER
"The psychiatrists have said that she is not getting better. We're hoping that in a freer environment at the infirmary, her condition will eventually improve," said Nancy Anderson, an attorney with the IJCHR, who represented Ms. Walker in court.
Ms. Walker's 'condition' almost caused her to be sent back to prison, as she hurled expletives at Resident Magistrate Marlene Malahoo, and other court staff at courthouse on Thursday. Concerned about her aggressiveness, the judge opted not to dismiss the case immediately, but ordered that Ms. Walker return to court on February 26, after a psychiatric evaluation had been done and her adjustment to the new environment was evident.
She is just one of those whom human rights officials estimate to be about 500 mentally ill inmates, who are lost in the prison system due to their illness. In March 2001, mentally ill Ivan Nettleford was rescued from the bowels of the prison system after spending 29 years for breaking a window in Clarendon in 1972. He was subsequently awarded $9 million in compensation. Another mentally ill inmate, Errol Campbell, was freed after spending 24 years in jail, charged with shooting with intent at a policeman. He had been declared unfit to plead.
VERY CONCERNED
Mrs. Anderson is happy for their release, but is still very concerned for the other mentally ill inmates still languishing in prison. She pushed her support behind the report tendered by the Human Resources and Social Development Committee of Parliament last week, which called on the Government to pump more funds into the care of the mentally ill, which is believed to be as much as 25 per cent of the population.
"What the psychiatrists are saying is that mental health in today's world can be treated with medicine and therapy, and it should be done in the community setting. I'm hoping that there is a new era with that report, and the work that the psychiatrists are trying to do. We have to treat people differently and not treat them as if they are mad people," said Mrs. Anderson.
The Committee asked that the current allocation towards mental health should at least be doubled in order to implement its other recommendations, including one for the number of places for persons training to become mental health practitioners to be increased.
