Jail Lane, Sir
That’s the address
For the few persons who live on Jail Lane in St Ann’s Bay, the name holds no fear for them.
It’s just a name, they insist. Today, the street, shortened to just one block because of the construction of the North Coast Highway some years ago, no longer leads to the ruins of what was the first prison established in Jamaica.
There’s no longer a sign at the intersection of Main Street to identify Jail Lane. Maybe two or three households remain, along with several business places, a church, along with the Roads and Works, and the Poor Relief departments of the St Ann Municipal Corporation.
Jail Lane was so named because the road led to what is believed to have been the first jail in Jamaica, the St Ann’s Bay jail.
The building that became the jail was established in 1795 by the British, which controlled the island at the time. It was once used as a fort, but was later abandoned.
Seventy-seven-year-old retired fisherman Winston Burrell, one of several persons who live on the seaside property where the ruins of the jail are situated, remembers moving to St Ann’s Bay with his mother over half a century ago, in the 1960s.
“When I come from Discovery Bay, I remember they used to have prisoners here, some of them tie up on the breadfruit tree,” he remembers.
“After them stop use it (as jail), them all tek it mek slaughterhouse. After the slaughterhouse, we came down here and start fishing,” he said.
Devon Evans, a renowned resident of St Ann’s Bay, said he first got to know the jail about 50 years ago, long before it deteriorated to the condition it is in now.
“I could see the cells, the peepholes, and it was in far better condition than it is now. You could really see that a jail was here and what were some of the features of the jail,” he said.
The remains of the jail now forms part of the fisherman’s beach that the area has been transformed into.
An elderly woman, Marline Tracey, who lives on Musgrave Street that intersects Jail Lane, grew up in the community and remembers the lane before the building of the highway.
She said the lane didn’t lead all the way to the jail.
“It wasn’t a busy road, car come as far as the ball ground and ‘foot walker’ walk go down a di ol’ jail,” Tracey remembers. She said that over time, persons would relocate to other areas, leaving just a few households on the lane.
She was asked, did the name Jail Lane, as a street address, bother people?
“No man, nuh di name that,” she said. “Is the name that.”
Palmer and Pharaoh, two of the younger generation of persons who live on the lane, said they were born there and have no problem saying they live on Jail Lane.
“Mi nuh proud fi seh mi associate wid di first jail, but guess what? A history fi me. Wi jus inna di vicinity, an’ a yah suh we grow,” Pharaoh told THE WEEKEND STAR.
The lane, limited in length as it is, has also produced some talented persons over the years. One such is former footballer Albert McKoy, who played Premier League football for Brazil FC and Volvo United back in the day.
He insists there is nothing bad about the name Jail Lane.
“There’s nothing bad about Jail Lane, but one thing I dream about is the fixing up of the St Ann’s Bay Oval. We have whole heap a promising youth deh yah,” he said.
Jail Lane was also used by some persons to access St Ann’s Bay Oval, which has been abandoned for several years now.