I know plenty people who will say that inmates do not have any rights. I will not blame the people of thinking that, but I do blame the government who apparently share that same opinion. I want to believe that my country is a civilized country. A civilized country has a civilized legal system with civilized government officials that obey the law and obey the court. Our country does not only have a penal code to punish, it also has this law and many other laws to protect individuals from unlawful punishments.
Those who have followed the news these last days know that the Inmates Association had the right to strike in order to bring injustice within the prison walls to the surface. The Court of first instance ruled that the collective punishment was unlawful and considered specifically that it was despicable that the whole board of the association was transferred to the police cells on June 2, clearly with the sole intention to clip their wings and break down the strike. Not only is country Sint Maarten guilty of collective punishing inmates who did not break any rules, Sint Maarten is also guilty of infringing basic human rights.
Although the acts of the director/minister were called despicable by the Court on Monday, the president, vice president and a member of the inmates association were still being held at the police station Friday morning. Now tell me, if the prison director is instructed or backed up by the Minister of Justice to break his own prison rules and international human rights despite a court order, can we still tell ourselves that we live in a civilized country? No one stands above the law, not an inmate, not an employee, not an employer, not a prison director, not a Minister.
Yahaira Romney,
On behalf of the Inmates Association.