'Prison schools' an unfair label

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Your editorial of Sunday, January 26, does an effective job of summarising all the salient points that came out of the police survey among a very significant number of prison inmates, which indicated their socio-economic backgrounds, their family profiles, AND the schools which they attended, with the schools most often named being highlighted.

Various commentators have made observations, some being critical of the likely methodology, and a principal focus of many observers has been an attempt to assess how much can be attributed to the schools versus the other influences from the wider community in suggesting causes for the population surveyed being in prison. The majority view has been to recognise that the totality of factors other than the schools attended has doubtless been the greater determining factor.

You and others have been very critical of the defensiveness of the Jamaica Teachers' Association and principals in their reaction to the study or to the publicity given to the study.

I do not intend to rehash what has been very thoroughly ventilated over this past week. I would, however, like to draw attention to the labelling of the study with the headline 'Prison schools' in the media, certainly in your newspaper (I am not sure of how it was headed in other reporting). A headline, especially in a community with limited printed news media and a population with a low commitment to reading, is very significant, and certainly the title 'Prison schools' is highly sensational. If 'Schools producing criminals' is 'what gone abroad' as the initial popular message to a gullible public, can one be surprised that those most affected by this distorted communication react with emotional defensiveness?

All serious media have a responsibility to reflect the content of the subject matter being reported in a balanced manner. This starts with the feature labelling, which I am sure all members of the journalistic profession should agree.

JOHN MAXWELL

jmxwll@gmail.com