Don't dehumanise prisoners

CERTAINLY, WE don't want to provide incarcerated lawbreakers with five-star accommodations in prison, but what Horace (not his real name) related to me concerning his stint in prison was quite disturbing.

Horace (an accomplished tradesman living in the inner city) was given a custodial sentence for failing to comply with a court-ordered restitution to someone that he allegedly injured during a brief fracas initiated by his accuser. He was sent to prison to "pay his debt to society" ... not to his alleged victim.

After the obligatory search upon entry to the Tower Street Rehabilitation Centre (formerly known as the General Penitentiary - GP), he was given one drinking cup, one bucket (a small pail for washing clothes), one bar of carbolic soap, one measured cup of soap powder (in a plastic bag), disinfectant (in a plastic bag) and one roll of toilet paper. Other necessities like toothbrush, toothpaste, rags and towels must be brought in by visitors or bought at the tuck shop, with monies from visitors.

Horace said that most cells are totally bare (no light, water or bunk/cot/bed) and that there are about 90 inmates on each block. The cells felt like a little more than 6 x 4 feet, but most housed three to four inmates. Some have to buy hammocks so that two are suspended atop each other, while two sleep on the concrete floor (usually on newspaper or cardboard). There is no linen and inmates make makeshift personal urinals out of plastic syrup bottles hung on nails. Inmates "screen off" (turn their backs) whenever someone needs privacy for urinating or changing clothes. Blocks with long-term inmates have one man per cell.

"Fly up"

The cells open ("fly up") at 9 a.m., lock down at 11 a.m., reopen at 12:30 p.m. and finally lock down again at 2:30 p.m. until 9 a.m. the next day. Between lockdown times, inmates must attempt to eat, shower, use toilets, do laundry and exercise or play games. Inmates who are late when the gong for lockdown sounds risk being beaten. Exceptions to being locked down for 20 hours include involvement in music, school, trade-work and church.

Meals are served (in plates bought there or given to inmates by visitors) in the hallway during "fly up" times. Inmates stand or sit on the floor to eat and drink. Meals include turkey neck, chicken-foot soup with ground provisions, rice (and peas on Sundays), callaloo and cabbage, cornmeal porridge, bread and one orange per week.

There is one open shower per block, so inmates shower in their underwear. The four toilets (sometimes three are functioning) per block are bare, cemented in and separated by inmate-made curtains. They are flushed with individual buckets. Inmates stoop barefooted on them to relieve themselves - this activity is called "riding". Anyone who sits on the toilet is considered to have "bowed" or "grounded" (which are homosexual designations), is beaten by fellow inmates and therefore relegated to 'Boys' Town'.

The toilets are where inmates with grouses ambush their intended victims with sharpened pieces of wire (nicknamed "guns"), sharpened sticks, ice picks, ratchet knives and even small machetes. And, yes, there is a lucrative business in contraband.

Hardened by society

Prisons, like the GP, obviously serve as deterrents, but the harsh conditions dehumanise inmates and harden them; many of whom have already been dehumanised and hardened by society. We need more alternatives to custodial sentencing for certain crimes. Some prisons are in dire need of upgrading. Twenty hours of lockdown, three to four persons to a tiny cell with no bunks is unacceptable; the bathroom and eating conditions are degrading. We must reform prisoners, not make them brutish.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Feedback may be sent to garthrattray@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.