Will ‘2020’ address penal reform?

THE EDITOR: The ultimate insult to a Third World country and its Government should be when findings by those from metropolitan countries suggest they are ignorant, inhuman, uncivilised and deserving of contempt. This was clearly inferred in the comments by those “ex-colonial white folks” from Amnesty International (AI) which were made after they visited the prisons of this country and found conditions which left them speechless and appalled — conditions which would not be sanctioned by the people and leaders of an educated, civilised and self respecting society.

I mean how could they criticise the prisons which our Presidents, Judges, Magistrates, Ministers of National Security, Prime Ministers, Police Officers, Prison Officers, etc., (our exemplars?) knew about and have deemed suitable for incarcerating their fellow human, some of whom are very young and have been found to be innocent or guilty of only minor offences? There are three important points here. The first is that if these “foreigners” knew of the conditions of our prisons, our local exemplars who live here and are part of the system must know of these conditions. The second is that these exemplars are all part of the process that place human beings in these Prisons and thirdly not one of these exemplars has ever resigned or expressed public horror over these conditions as the “foreigners” have done.

If all of those who sanctioned these conditions were to be judged their defence could only be along the lines of that which was put up by the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials and we all know of the judgment that was handed down there. These revelations should also cause us to reflect on the wisdom of getting rid of the Privy Council and replacing it with “something local” run by the same locals who have knowingly committed human beings to what they call prison. In a sense we are all also guilty of this inhumanity since we all must know of its existence even if unlike the Judges, Presidents, Prime Ministers, et al we are really powerless. Foreigners to our country are the ones most alarmed and must think that despite our trappings, we are at best only aspirants to being humans. 

Ultimately the guilt belongs to those in Government who of course will remain unmoved, leaving the situation to persist until some foreign based agency, as has happened with issues related to the environment, compels or coerces Government to act. These are just some of the reasons why our former masters in the metropolitan countries, and even some in this country, think so little of us and continue to see us as being only here to be corrupted and exploited, or simply pitied. I wonder if Lok Jack and his Vision 2020 Team have a Committee addressing our Legal/Judicial/Penal system, or even if at all, they consider it a criterion for achieving developed world status? Are they seeing and addressing the fundamentals like the need to create a country before even talking about creating an economy or a developed country?

The team appears to be placing significant emphasis on the country increasing its GDP as a prerequisite to development. Perhaps they have identified a GDP threshold that will trigger a release of humanity from our leaders with perhaps another that will deliver an intelligent, caring and honest Government. Does Government really need this expensive and time consuming Vision 2020 exercise to see what foreigners are able to see so clearly and quickly? Is the problem one of lack of vision or the lack of a Vision informed by a correct sense of spirituality, morality, ethics and intelligence?

Eugene A Reynald
Port-of-Spain