‘BULLY FOR RESULTS’
New prison boss vows tough stance, pledges transformation of correctional services
JAMAICA’S NEW prison boss, Brigadier Radgh Mason, has declared that he will be “a bully” for results while emphasising that “the way to a safe society is ensuring that the persons who pass through these gates do not return”.
“I’m a bully for achieving results. I’m a bully for discipline. I’m a bully for the culture and ethos of the organisation,” Mason said during a virtual staff meeting on April 4, his first since taking over as commissioner of corrections at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) two days earlier.
However, he assured the staff, “You will have no problems once those targets and the ethos of the organisation are being met.”
Mason, a 33-year-veteran of the Jamaica Defence Force, said he is “very impressed” with certain systems at DCS, including the level of experience and expertise of staff.
“We just need now to take it to another level,” he said, while outlining that his tenure at the department will be driven by culture change, discipline, and the greater use of technology.
“My mandate is to assist with the transformation of the Department of Corrections,” he said, noting that the transformation will be built on the culture of DCS and the wider society, and “has to be one where we are rooted and focused on this business of safety and security and rehabilitation”.
“The transformation means looking at all our policies and procedures and making sure that they are in line with the strategic directives that we are charged with executing,” he said.
Mason did not identify any specific changes he was contemplating, but noted that targets will be set following consultation.
The DCS oversees the island’s adult and juvenile correctional facilities as well as remand centres. Up to January, it reported 3,700 inmates spread across 10 facilities.
And relating an experience in which he said officials of the resource-rich United States military complained about equipment, Mason said: “There is no organisation anywhere in the world that has all the resources to do everything that it needs to do when it needs to do it. And, therefore a big part of the strategy is to ensure that the resource that we have available that it is properly accounted for, that the priorities are known, and the priorities are met.”
Mason said he has been conducting a tour of DCS facilities
to identify the infrastructural, health and security issues.
Junior National Security Minister Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn and Permanent Secretary Ambassador Alison Stone Roofe were among the senior officials who welcomed Mason.
Stone Roofe encouraged the DCS workers to pursue excellence, noting that work continued on a “renewed and energised staff” and improved infrastructure, working conditions and greater accountability.
“National security is a mammoth task that requires consistency and discipline,” she said, adding that “each person has to commit their very best as a member of the overall team and this is critical if we are to make a difference. No one person can solve the problems. A siloed approach in the current dynamic environment is one that certainly will not see us going very far.”
Meanwhile, Cuthbert-Flynn, who has responsibility for the DCS, noted that “strides” were being made, such as an increase in the fleet of vehicles, renovations at juvenile centres, and progress in the educational performance of inmates.
“I want to reassure all that we will be doing more to strengthen the efforts of DCS,” she said.
Mason comes to the position amid longstanding concerns about the quality of rehabilitation and the poor conditions of prisons. Calls remain for a modern maximum-security facility that the Government says it is pursuing. One of the perennial problems with the major prisons is the acknowledged communication between hardened criminals serving time and their outside pawns who create mayhem through gang-driven murders and other illegal behaviours.
Mason will also face agitated correctional officers, who have expressed concerns about their proposed compensation from the finance ministry.