Costly prisons

In this August 2021 photo George Williams appears to be pondering his future while standing in the doorway of his house in Linstead, St Catherine. Williams who spent over 42 years in prison on murder charges despite being found unfit to plead from 1971, was released in 2020. He sued the State and was awarded $120 million in damages. WITH the majority of lawsuits against the State filed by inmates seeking millions in compensation based on complaints about lack of bathroom facilities, overcrowding and general prison conditions, the Attorney General’s Chambers has recommended that the Department of Corrections “address the systematic deficiencies and the administrative shortcomings in order to cauterise the influx of these types of cases”. “We have a lot of cases before the court that highlight these challenges,” director of state proceedings in the Attorney General’s Department Faith Hall said Tuesday on day two of the 14th annual Association of Caribbean Heads of Corrections and Prison Services (ACHCPS) Conference. The confab is hosted by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Jamaica at the AC Hotel Kingston. According to Hall, there are currently 10 claims before the Constitutional Court awaiting a ruling on these matters. Addressing the issue of how the DCS can implement policies or amend systems to stem the influx of civil cases, Hall said chief among the Chambers’ recommendations is that the institution should “allow, where reasonable, liberal use of bathroom facilities; discourage the use of buckets for disposal of excrement; create a system of oversight for cleaning parties or manage it more closely or reimagine what is there; create a system of oversight to increase food standards and implement rehabilitation programmes focusing on hygiene and behaviour”. Another area of concern is inmates’ lack of knowledge about the channels through which they can access legal help from outside the prison walls. “The thinking is that when an inmate comes in they get an orientation package that informs about their release date, for example,” Hall suggested, adding that information about how to file appeals should also be included. She said while the prison’s Bail and Appeal Section offers inmates help in filing appeals, it needs to do more in pointing them to the source of legal advice. According to Hall, a lot of the complaints by inmates is that when they go to that division they are discouraged from filing an appeal. She noted, however, that these claims have not been proven. Hall also urged the DCS to make a strong push to address unsafe conditions within prisons as there is a serious possibility that DCS would be blamed if an inmate is injured by another using contraband. “The responsibility is a multi-stakeholder one, in terms of preventing these kinds of claims that we are seeing at the Attorney General’s Chambers which are many times difficult for us to defend in court in this current climate where the society has become more aware of their rights and the society has become more litigious. Once it is [that] their rights are infringed — and there are attorneys there who are seeking out these persons — a claim will be filed,” Hall warned. She noted that while many of the systematic failures which trigger lawsuits do not rest with the DCS alone, “the fact remains that the DCS plays an important role in advocating for the resources needed to carry out the functions given to it”. Highlighting other claims being brought because of breach of constitutional rights or systematic deficiencies, Hall said these come from individuals “found unfit to plead and mental health patients” in addition to claims hinging on the inhumane and degrading conditions of prisons and unsafe custodial conditions. She referenced the cases of Noel Chambers, an 81-year-old Jamaican man who died in custody on January 27, 2020, after being imprisoned for 40 years without ever standing trial, and George Williams who was released in 2020 after he spent over 42 years in prison on murder charges despite being found unfit to plead from 1971. She said these were cases of individuals being lost in the system, due to a multiplicity of errors on the part of various State actors, which have caused taxpayers dearly. “What is important to note is that there were review mechanisms in place specifically to prevent a mentally ill person from being indefinitely detained without judicial oversight. However, regrettably those safeguards were not implemented in Mr Williams’ case,” Hall said. “The responsibility of bringing him back before the court is not the DCS’s, so to speak. He was being housed by the DCS; there should have been some alert to say this was the situation and this was happening,” she added, pointing out that those shortfalls led to approximately $120 million in damages being awarded to Williams following the ruling by the court. She said the department has appealed the ruling but only in respect of the quantum. “The issues in relation to the failings and the breach of his constitutional rights were clear and we really wouldn’t have any defence for that. But we do believe the judge was a little heavy-handed, in terms of the award. But what the decision reinforced is that there are consequences that the State faces when it fails to address deficiencies in the prison’s administration, especially where vulnerable persons with mental illness are concerned,” she said and mooted electronic systems for tracking inmates among the methods to prevent them from being lost in the system. In the meantime, she said while the ruling in relation to Williams’ payout is being appealed, $35 million of the $120 million was paid over to him in August this year “as a portion of what we think the claim is worth… as a show of good faith”. The three-day conference, which began on Monday, is being convened under the theme ‘One Caribbean, One Vision’ and brings together senior correctional leaders, policymakers, and technical experts from across the Caribbean to discuss innovations, legal governance, and rehabilitation.