First published in The Tribune on Friday, April 4, 2008 under the byline, Young Man's View.
HER Majesty’s Prison (Fox Hill) is a barbaric, overcrowded penal facility that creates hardened savages instead of serving as an institution for rehabilitation.
The prison has failed to be a correctional facility and does not adhere to the international standards governing the treatment of prisoners.
In the country’s main penal complex, sequestration and payback for those suspected and convicted of crimes appears to be the chosen approach, instead of a concerted drive for rehabilitation.
Frankly, rehabilitation can only occur when the inhumane conditions at the prison are improved. Furthermore, even prison officers are susceptible to mental and physical illnesses resulting from their deplorable work environment. The prison service continues to be an understaffed and grossly underpaid arm of law enforcement.
The slammer in Fox Hill was constructed in 1953 with the purpose that it would house 400 inmates. Today, the “correctional institution” is bursting at the seams with 1300 inmates living in foul conditions that regularly turn nonviolent offenders into violent criminals. It is a travesty that one of every 230 Bahamians is currently a resident of Statesville.
According to Amnesty International (AI), the Bahamas currently has the eighth highest rate of imprisonment in the world. Judicial officers and persons with oversight for the prison should be aware that the warehousing of non-violent, pre-trial prisoners significantly contributes to the overflow at the penitentiary.
According to social activist Rodney Moncur:
“I’ve seen situations where it seems the 30 persons are confined to a cramped cell, particularly at the minimum security area at the rear of the prison. In maximum and medium security areas, six or more persons are confined to a cell and everyone can see you using the toilet!”
Indeed, former prisoners suggest that they are packed together—like slaves crossing the Middle Passage—while serving their sentences. I am told that even the cells at police stations are unhygienic, with reports of blood and faeces being on the floors at certain stations.
In addressing prison facilities, Russian novelist/prisoner Fyodor Dostoevsky said that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Well, considering the conditions at Fox Hill, are we uncivilized?
Although I would never advocate for prisoners to live luxuriously, regardless of their misgivings, their removal from society should not only serve as punishment. They should also be humanely treated and trained to become productive citizens. At present, the stockade at Fox Hill is a hotbed for diseases, as there are high instances of HIV, AIDS, TB and other communicable diseases.
The rate of attempted suicide is elevated as distraught inmates, who become mentally unstable due to the reality of their circumstances, desperately choose to end their lives rather than live nightmarish existences. Prisoners, past and present, also accuse the prison of providing inadequate medical/mental care and, as AI reports, “specialists in women’s health care are allegedly unavailable.”
On a recent talk show, Prison Superintendent Elliston Rahming was questioned about the predicament of paralyzed inmates (eg, those shot in the spine during robberies) and whether they are simply left to lie down and wallow in their muck.
In a publicly edifying response, Mr Rahming noted that an inmate in a grim medical state and who is no longer a societal menace can be recommended to the Prerogative Board of Mercy for release. For some, it appears that there’s little concern for humanity once a person has been condemned.
Although Bahamian taxpayers disburse between $10-12,000 per annum for a single prisoner’s maintenance, the prison remains a poorly ventilated joint where prisoners sleep on cardboards, worn-out blankets, hard benches and/or concrete beds. Conditions at the prison are dehumanizing as inmates urinate and defecate openly in a slop bucket, share a bucket of water for bathing and daily discard mounds of malodorous faeces in garbage bags and wheelbarrows.
According to The Tribune of 12th December, 2007, Mr Rahming said that the rate of recidivism at the penitentiary stood at a whopping 42 per cent. It appears that there’s a revolving door syndrome afflicting a sizeable percentage who, once released, are stigmatized by unforgiving Bahamians and suspiciously viewed by potential employers who refuse to hire them, return to unconducive environments and errant peers and sometimes lack the skills and expertise for certain jobs.
“Kerzner and many other investors don’t want anyone with a criminal record. Even the construction companies are demanding character certificates, so imagine where that leaves most ex-cons,” notes Rodney Moncur.
If prisoners at Fox Hill are further exposed to education, job training and drug treatment, and Bahamian employers are sensitized to their plight and encouraged to grant second chances, the rate of recidivism can be dramatically reduced. This, in turn, can also lead to a reduction of taxpayer costs.
Weaker inmates, particularly those smaller and younger passive prisoners, are allegedly the victims of rape and sexual abuse by other prisoners or prison guards. New prisoners or those of an alternative lifestyle are easy targets for victimization and, in many instances, leave the prison with psychosomatic issues, behave sadistically and/or a sexually transmitted disease.
A former prisoner told me that these rapes can occur in the presence of “correctional officers” who become institutionalized themselves and adopt a dismissive air.
According to former US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun:
'The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure.'
In the Bahamas, there is a need for sentencing reform, particularly when dealing with minor offences, as persons are sentenced for a small amount of marijuana or petty theft when a more appropriate sentence would be probation or community service.
The size in the population at our main jailhouse can only be reduced through the aforementioned avenues as well as fines and sanctions such as the loss of driver’s licenses, house arrest and electronic monitoring.
It is high time that the Bahamas’ judicial system adopt a system of restorative justice prior to court trials, where each case is examined, particularly as it relates to first-time offenders or persons suspected of petty crimes.
On the Family Islands, before drafting court summons, a restorative justice system can be widely practiced, as close knit communities can come together to scrutinize the impact of a crime and arrange means for holding an offender responsible. Of course, persons guilty of offenses must be apologetic and accountable for their actions to qualify and be made to pay amends to either a victim or a community.
Furthermore, to alleviate the overcrowding at the prison and/or reduce draconian sentences, especially in instances when minor offences are committed, the Attorney General’s office, in conjunction with judges, must become more open to plea bargaining.
Presently, Fox Hill prison is home to an assortment of skilled labourers. I am told that the Police Conference Centre was constructed by inmates. With that in mind, it would be economical for the government to utilise prison inmates in the restoration of several dilapidated government offices. Of course, the government must compensate these prisoners, who would earn monies in savings accounts and be more independent on release.
Sex offenders, convicted murders and other outright degenerates should never be released on work programs. Frankly, we must set about creating a local database of sex offenders and outfitting them with tracking bracelets.
I have always been a proponent of the government using some of the stalled $30 million from the Chinese government, purportedly donated to build a yet unseen stadium, to constructing a new prison on a secluded cay, faraway from residential areas.
Rehabilitation entails an convicted inmate accepting responsibility for a crime, working to ensure that it never recurs by learning conflict resolution tactics and to respect other peoples rights/properties and attaining a skill or basic education to become a better citizen.
When it comes to the re-integration of prisoners in society, the church and other NGOs should start and adopt an inmate program when a prisoner is released, so as to provide clothes, meals, a half-way house and assist with getting a job.
This can greatly reduce an ex-con’s penchant to re-offend. The government should also initiate a second chance program to sensitize Bahamians, establish a legal aid program and develop a mandatory national youth service to rescue youngsters, particularly those on a path to Fox Hill.
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