Editorial | Prison contraband: Catch the culprits first

This week, there was an altercation between a warder at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre and one of the prison’s inmates, the dancehall artiste known as Tommy Lee Sparta. The prisoner, whose given name is Leroy Russell, was seriously injured. He was hospitalised.

That the fracas became publicly known, ahead of any acknowledgement by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), was because it was captured on video and posted to the Internet. That was apparently done by other inmates, using mobile devices they are not supposed to have. The prison authorities deem such items to be contraband.

In the aftermath of the Tommy Lee Sparta incident, the authorities conducted a sweep of the prison. According to this newspaper’s online reporting of the development, they “busted a contraband smuggling enterprise at the facility”. Among other things, they found alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, smoking paraphernalia and lighters.

It is not the first time that such discoveries have been made in Jamaican prisons. On previous sweeps, the recoveries have included high-end mobile phones and prison cells tastefully decked out and stocked in a fashion for their occupants to live the high life. What is different this time is that the goods weren’t only confiscated from prisoners. Some were discovered in the staff’s locker room.

CORRUPT WARDERS

“No one has been identified as the owner of the items,” said the DCS’ spokesperson, Monique Pryce. It is very unlikely that the goods were placed there by inmates. And it is a safe assumption that they belonged to warders who operated retail businesses, selling contraband to prisoners. Or, to put it bluntly, the prison system is infested with corrupt warders whose activities compromise security.

So prisoners, who ostensibly have little freedom to operate and are without access to electronic devices, can be interviewed by foreign media, or can regularly release music recordings that keep them on the popular music charts. Or, gangsters can talk freely on mobile phones with cronies about actual and potential murders, or generally conduct their criminal networks from behind bars.

While none of this is new, what is curious in the latest iteration of the outrage is the lackadaisical, effete response from those at the top, in particular the new junior minister for national security, Zavia Mayne.

Speaking at a function to launch an education initiative for inmates and prison staff, Mr Mayne did warn that correctional officers who “aid and abet” the smuggling of contraband “will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law”. Which is what they have been saying for years. Yet, warders are rarely arrested and tried for their misbehaviour.

AMENDMENTS TO ACT

However, Mr Mayne appears to believe that he has an ace up his sleeve: amendments to the Corrections Act, passed by Parliament late last year and signed by the governor-general, Sir Patrick Allen, on Christmas Eve. These amendments, he said, would soon come into force. Mr Mayne especially highlighted the harsher penalties for the possession of prohibited items in prisons.

At present, a prison official who has “either directly or indirectly, any pecuniary interest in, or derives any benefit or advantage from, the sale or purchase of any supplies for an adult correctional centre or of any article to or for the use of any inmate or of any adult correctional centre”, may, on conviction in a parish court, be subjected to a fine “not exceeding five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months”. That person could now be fined up to J$3 million or three years in prison, or both.

The problem in Jamaica, however, is that the authorities often conflate tough penalties with the execution of the law – the six hit. But when enforcement is weak, no matter the declared penalty, the law is of little use as a deterrent. Criminals continue to act with impunity.

Mr Mayne is likely to find there is less of a problem with contraband if the people who smuggle and distribute them in the prisons are caught, arrested, tried, convicted and jailed – even if the term is only two months. Up to now, the risk of being caught is just too low.