JPs can still visit prisoners and lock-ups - Westmoreland custos, Trelawny Lay Magistrates president dismiss reports of COVID-19 restrictions
Published:Monday | May 11, 2020 | 12:14 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Justices of the Peace (JP) in western Jamaica are not being barred from inspecting police lock-ups and seeing inmates, despite reports suggesting that they have been barred from doing so due to concerns that outside persons could bring COVID-19 into these facilities.
The Reverend Hartley Perrin, custos of Westmoreland, and Kenneth Grant, president of the Trelawny Lay Magistrates’ Association, told The Gleaner that they have no reports of JPs being denied access to prisoners or lock-ups since the outbreak of COVID-19.
However, Perrin said he can understand the fear of COVID-19 contamination, which could lead to such restrictions relating to prisoners in custody.
“All of us are potential carriers of COVID-19, and the prisoners live in a close environment, where all of them would be affected if one were to get it. But I haven’t got any such complaint to date that JPs cannot see them,” said Perrin. “Even if the prisoner cannot be seen in the cell, the prisoner can be brought out of the cell in a secure place where a one-to-one meeting can be done.”
Grant said that while he has told the JPs under his command that they can still visit lock-ups, they are free to choose whether they want to go as it relates to protecting themselves from possible exposure to the virus.
“JPs aren’t really being prevented from checking the lock-ups if need be. They haven’t checked since the COVID-19 pandemic started because we cannot force them,” said Grant. “I’ve advised them that they can still go and check, but it’s going to be their personal decision, as they have to think about their personal safety.”
Meanwhile, attorney-at-law and president of the Cornwall Bar Association, Lambert Johnson, says inmates still have a right to legal representation, despite the COVID-19 concerns.
“I’ve had no such reports about JPs being restricted, and I don’t know of that happening for lawyers. When we go there, the police actually take out our clients from custody, and we sit together in a private area as best as possible with our masks on,” said Johnson. “The persons in custody have a right to see their attorneys and to be represented. If the police tried that kind of restriction, we would stand up as one voice and speak very loudly.”
In March, the Department of Correctional Services promised that measures would be implemented to prevent a spread of COVID-19 among prisoners. Since the onset of COVID-19, Jamaica has recorded 488 infections and nine deaths.