- NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Major Richard Reese (left), Commissioner of Corrections, in discussion with former Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr. Raymoth Notice, at the official opening of the visitors' booth at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town on June 3, 2005.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
AN INVESTIGATION into allegations of mass rape at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre has been launched, says Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.
Mr. Scott told The Sunday Gleaner last week that the probe would be conducted by the Inspectorate Division of his ministry. He said the team would also investigate sexual abuse at the Tower Street Adult Correct-ional Centre, Jamaica's other maximum security facility.
SEXUAL ABUSE
The investigation was ordered two weeks after councillor for the Bog Walk Division, Dr. Raymoth Notice, told the St. Catherine Parish Council that there was widespread sexual abuse at the St. Catherine prison.
Mr. Notice, a former Mayor of Spanish Town, said mentally-challenged inmates were being targeted by other prisoners, so too inmates doing time for non-violent crimes.
On Friday, when Mr. Notice spoke with The Sunday Gleaner he declined to disclose the source of these claims. He said because of his job as chairman of the Public Health Committee of St. Catherine, he was privy to such information.
"I don't think we need to get to the source. This is a public health issue and I am a public servant," he said.
RESERVOIR OF INFORMATION
He said because many inmates have family living in St. Catherine, there was a 'reservoir of information' coming out the of prison.
Dr. Notice was the prison doctor at the St. Catherine prison in August 1998 when he disclosed that the HIV disease was prevalent among its over 1,000 inmates. His revelation prompted then head of the Correctional Services, Lieutenant Colonel John Prescod, to order the issuing of condoms in prisons to inmates.
Mr. Prescod's proposal sparked a riot at the Tower Street prison where several prisoners were murdered and injured by other inmates.
Dr. Notice, who resigned as doctor at the St. Catherine prison in 2001, made several recommendations to eliminate sexual crimes in local prisons during his tenure. These included conjugal visits for inmates, counselling for sexual offenders before they were incarcerated and separating mentally-ill inmates from hardened prisoners.
