RISE
reflected on the current situation.
“I don’t know how anyone can feel anything but horror and great anger when it comes to Mr Chambers’ death,” she said. “We are talking about 40 years! How many prime ministers, leaders of the opposition, how many members of parliament would have sat over this period? ... What we are talking about is a horrendous systemic failure for over decades.”
Goffe added that many mentally ill inmates do not speak up about their abuse because of depression.
One mentally ill inmate, 40-yearold Lebert Bailey, lost one of his eyes after being brutally beaten at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility in 2017.
Among the inmates currently locked away without trial are men INDECOM identified as ‘GW’ and ‘EE’. Both have spent 49 years in prison at the court’s pleasure without trial for murder. Their psychiatric condition is unknown, although their last listed court dates were in 1970 and 2000, respectively. More than a dozen other prisoners have been in a similar position for more than 30 years, according to the report.
Pressed by the INDECOM report in what could be a general election year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week described Chambers’ ordeal as “tragic and heartbreaking” and directed that an audit be carried out into the current situation.
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes also admitted that Chambers had been victimised by the Jamaican judiciary several times and established a mental health task force to review law, policies and procedures relating to mentally ill persons in custody. That task force is expected to present a report within the next 120 days.
UNUSUAL APOLOGY
For Rodje Malcolm, executive director for human-rights group Jamaicans for Justice, however, this has become all too familiar.
“This (chief justice’s) is an unusual apology but it really reflects how severe and systemic the failure was on the part of the justice system, which is not limited to the courts,” he posited, adding that over the years, several reviews have been done.
“We believe that there is a need for law reform to make it legally impossible to imprison someone indefinitely even though they have never stood trial, and place them alongside persons who have been convicted for crimes. That, for us, is fundamentally unjust,” added Malcolm.
In a statement last night, Commissioner of Corrections Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Gary Rowe noted that efforts were made to ensure that Chambers received internal psychiatric care and regular medical attention and treatment both internally and at public hospitals over the years.
“It is accepted that the recent INDECOM report around Mr Noel Chambers highlights the fact that mental illness remains a public health concern, one which we at the DCS have been grappling with for a number of years. There are areas that have been identified where the DCS must transform, modernize and strengthen within the administrative processes and our medical capabilities at our correctional centres,” he said.
Rowe admitted that there was room for improvement throughout the system, and that the DCS was prioritizing the review of these vulnerabilities in order to implement the best measures for transformation, “to ensure that there is never a repeat of this incident”.
“Mr Chambers’ case highlights the need for the strengthening of our medical capabilities even as the department continues to lobby for not only the upgrading of our medical unit, but further staff and infrastructural relevance. This current situation reminds us all of the dire need for more psychiatrist positions to ensure that the DCS can comply with the requirement for the volume of evaluations demanded in the courts,” stated the commissioner of corrections.