Dear Editor,
A trickle of suspects has started to depart the national prison facility in Pointe Blanche. The Prosecution Service announced last Friday that two suspects were sent home because of overcrowding. Due to the rebuilding of parts of the prison, there are 30 fewer detention places.
The suspects were detained for fire-arm possession and one suspected of human smuggling. The suspects are now allowed to await the remainder of the investigation into their cases at home. Three prisoners, who had nearly completed their sentences, were released in order to create space in the national prison. In addition, as a result of detention space, the Prosecution Service chose not to take into pre-trial detention two persons suspected of money laundering.
An urgent meeting has taken place between the Head Prosecutor, Chief of Police and Prison Director with respect to finding a solution and drafting an advice for the Minister of Justice.
Crime is one of the great challenges for democratic governance. The lack of prison space and detention holding areas is not only a Sint Maarten challenge, but also a regional one. Caribbean prison services have met to discuss this and many other issues related to the prison system. Prison reform is seen as essential in order to meet the challenges of corrections now and in the future.
Some regional countries are promoting the use of new and emerging technological advances in corrective services. The Bahamas for example has introduced an Electronic Monitoring Programme to reduce the prison population.
According to the report, "Prison: problems and challenges for the Americas," commissioned by the Organization of American States (OAS), the incarceration of millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean is a major security problem that manifest itself into prison overcrowding among many other challenges including social rehabilitation and reintegration to prepare inmates to re-enter civilian life. The United States of America prison population is the largest in the world.
Prison overpopulation and overcrowding are problems that few countries manage to avoid. The next Parliament of country Sint Maarten will have to delve into the matter of our prison system and look at ways and means to fight crime and how our prison system will look 10 to 20-years from now.
The aforementioned report says the prison systems in Latin America and the Caribbean are in a profound crisis. The obvious deterioration of our prisons the report says is not just the fault of prison authorities; instead it is a function of the low priority attached to this issue in the public policies that states pursue.
"In almost every country of the hemisphere, prison problems are invisible to the public eye, mainly because the citizenry – and therefore policies – have focused more on punishing those who commit crime than on rehabilitating them. Where policies on crime are concerned, many factors and combinations of factors have conspired to cause this crisis."
The Cayman Islands in order to meet international prison and detention human rights standards is investing into building a modular custody/jail prefabricated facility to house persons. The structures are portable and have a life span of 20+years. The facility is semi-permanent and can be relocated to another site at minimal expense. The facility is custom designed and can withstand 150 mile per hour wind speeds – category 5 hurricane. The company that can supply these structures is Eagle Modular which has created similar structures for locations in Canada and the United States.
The aforementioned could be a temporary solution to current prison and detention housing challenges as well as having juvenile prisoners housed separately.
Roddy Heyliger