New inmates subjected to sex abuse in prisons

FRESH inmates are being taken advantage of sexually in the nation’s prisons, Professor Ramesh Deosaran, director, Centre of Criminology and Criminal Justice of the University of the West Indies said yesterday.

As a consequence of the finding, Deosaran has recommended that the matter of a well-regulated system of conjugal visits as a mode towards rehabilitation, at least for certain prisoners, be urgently considered. Deosaran said it is time to face head on, the peversity of forced homosexuality and infectious diseases in the country’s prisons.  This problem, he said, is common knowledge to those in authority, and added that the conjugal visits are not meant to make the prisons a hotel, but is an appropriate platform for rehabilitation. Deosaran was speaking during the handing over ceremony of his 260-page report on Prison Recidivism to Anthony Roberts, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of National Security and Rehabilitation. 

The ceremony took place at the offices of the Ministry of National Security. The audience included Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy, Deputy Commissioner of Police Everald Snaggs, ACP Winston Cooper, retired Prisons Commissioner Cipriani Baptiste and former Anglican Bishop, Clive Abdullah. The report has 42 recommendations.  Heading the list is the appeal for upgrading and streamlining the information and data base systems in the prisons service. Deosaran has also suggested more targeted training for prison officers as well as some psychological and vocational testing for inmates to help determine aptitudes for rehabilitation. He has also proposed a clear separation of what he describes as “hardened recidivists” from the first-time offenders, especially those with relatively short sentences.

Deosaran has also said that the physical conditions at the prisons are in a sense a nightmare for both prisoners and prison officers. “This is a matter needing urgent attention and no doubt will form part of the government’s follow-up action on the Task Force’s own recommendations,” he said. The study on Prison Recidivism began in May 2002, after government asked the UWI Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice to identify two specific areas which require immediate attention and which could help reduce in the long run, the crime rate in the country. Deosaran said the current recidivism rate of 56 percent for the 4,500 prisoners examined for 2002 is too high, especially when many of them return to prison as many as four or five times for serious offences. “The question therefore arises: ‘Is imprisonment in itself acting as a deterrent for crime, especially serious crimes?’  The answer is, not really.”

Deosaran went on to say that enough data has been found in the study, to indicate that the person most likely to enter our prisons more than once, or even once, is a young, very poor, single, poorly educated African male living on the East/West corridor.  The typical prisoner is also quite deficient in functional literacy, he added. Quoting statistics, Deosaran said over 80 percent of the inmates are under 40 years; 45 percent are under 30; while 98 percent are males. Also, he said, 98 percent are from poor or unemployed backgrounds and about 50 percent live in districts from Carenage to Toco, mainly along the East/West corridor, 70 percent of the inmates have a five-year or less sentence, while 40 percent have a two-year or less sentence. Given the nature and distribution of sentences, Deosaran said much more use should be made of the 12 community mediation centres in the country.  He also urged judges  to “properly carry out your sentencing” since it would be helpful all around.

Giving reasons for incarcerations, Deosaran said 35 percent of the highest proportions of the 4,500 inmates are in jail for narcotic offences, another 35 percent are in prison for larceny, house-breaking and robbery. He continued that among the 2,500 recidivists, 44 percent are in prison for larceny, robbery and house-breaking.  “While we do expect convicted criminals to be punished, we are also being confronted with the growing reality that once in prison, a more hard-line criminal career becomes nurtured,” Deosaran said.