Orville Taylor | Let’s get the next chapter right

On Friday morning, I woke to the news that multiple murderer Rushane Barnett, the man who slaughtered four children and their mother in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, was sentenced to five life sentences and will have to serve 61 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. He is 23 years old and assuming that he gives very little trouble, and that he survives the challenges of incarceration and defies all the statistics on life expectancy, he will be 85. Most free Jamaicans die at 75.

Unless the unthinkable happens and he escapes, the only time he will see road again is if someone writes the word on paper or shows him a photograph. Moreover, as far as I know, conjugal visits are not on the cards for him. Therefore, there is a subtle double entendre regarding the judge handing down sentence. Never mind the recidivism of our incurable crooner who is doing a paragraph in The Netherlands. Prison in Jamaica is no ‘bed of roses’.

In prison, paedophiles, rapists and killers are the scum of the population. According to historical investigator Peter Vronsky, “There’s a hierarchy in prison, and child molesters and child murderers are lowest in rank.” So, the other ‘dogs’ and ‘chargies’ will place a target on his back. He is not an exceptionally large brown-skinned man and certainly no Blacky Chan. Therefore, it is unlikely than any kind of cock and bull story he might weave will prevent he, himself, from being a victim of heinous crimes. Barnett is going to spend the rest of his days fighting to stay alive, watching his back constantly. At some stage, his youthfulness will run out and he will be a senior citizen, unable to repel any attack. A lifetime of suffering is hell; which is why many lifers commit suicide.

FULL 100

In the USA, prison suicide rates are four times the national average, with a third having received psychiatric diagnosis out of the 40 per cent who required psychological intervention. Even the most ignorant of amateurs cannot conclude that Barnett is full 100. Note, nonetheless; being incompetent in law to plead and be found guilty is not the same threshold for being ‘insane’.

In the wake of the news that another police officer has been killed by criminal elements, making it three within a month, the call for blood is understandable. Having pleaded guilty, the death penalty, which would probably still not have been on the menu, if he had wasted the court’s time, was never an option. As long as Barnett is kept securely as a guest of the government, the first task of protecting the population from him will be fulfilled by the sentence. Whether or not the penalty is a deterrent is not even moot. The scientific evidence is that the most important factor in a person committing any crime is not the certainty of punishment; it is the probability of being caught.

It might also be instructive that many killers also murder others, because they get to that point where their lives mean nothing to others and themselves. A society that coaches its young men and potential killers that lives, of any category of humans, is worthless, will constantly breed killers. More important than the brutality of the crime itself is that Barnett did not use a firearm, the weapon of choice in the killing of approximately 90 per cent of the homicide victims. He used a knife, and deliberately and meticulously carried out the acts.

SPECIAL MONSTER

A person who repeatedly stabs or bludgeons another, especially a smaller and weaker one, multiple times, is a special monster. No removal of guns or reduction of the supply of illegal firearms will stem the rise of men like Barnett. Unless we address the socio-psychological factors, which produce people like him; the level of criminal violence will never decline to a ‘normal’ level. We simply have to reduce the mens rea and the actus reus will follow.

Apart from satisfying our primordial unchristian need for revenge, digging up Old Testament verses, as if Moses is the ‘truth and life’, there is nothing we as a civilised society would have gained by treating Barnett according to Mosaic or Sharia Law. All it will do is to say, that in our humble positions as people who apparently were in the beginning with God, blowing life; we can determine who is worthy of it. All the research and data indicate that countries and states with the death penalty actually have higher homicide rates.

Pardon the analogy but there are times when endangered species, such as elephants, crocodiles, wolves and other apex predators, take human lives. Captive animals present myriad opportunities for research and policymakers to understand why they turned into the organisms that they are. There is copious evidence regarding the processes by which people who kill multiple times are formed. Already, we may know what are the socio-cultural antecedents that led to Barnett not only doing what he did, but developing the mind that he has. His brain is worth far more to us alive than dead.

This is absolutely not an attempt to minimise the responsibility he has for his actions. Crime must be punished.

But remember, if we recognise that violence and homicides are public health matters, then fogging the mosquitoes and setting rat traps is only part of the solution. We need to clean and reduce the breeding spots as well.

- Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.