Spanish Town business interests are still adamant that the proposed US$71.2-million maximum security prison, the first in more than a century, should not be located in the St Catherine capital, despite advanced contract negotiations between a selected bidder and the Government.

According to the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the addition of a fifth prison to the parish would only serve to worsen already high levels of crime there.

“It is a fact that many prisoners, upon their release, form relationships in the community and just remain in the area,” chamber president Dennis Robotham complained. “A lot of the crime in Spanish Town is carried out by ex-prisoners.”

Minister of national security Dr Peter Phillips confirmed last Thursday that Cabinet had approved the selection of a bidder for the facility to be built in the old capital and said that negotiations were nearing completion. He did not name the selected bidder.

However, the St Catherine Chamber is maintaining its opposition to the new institution. “In this area, we have enough problems as it is,” lamented Robotham. “Based on the social problems we have, a new prison would only serve to put us over the edge.”

The maximum security facility was first announced by then security minister K D Knight in the 2000 Sectoral Debate in Parliament, and work was scheduled to begin in Spanish Town from 2001.

However, further development was stalled when the announcement was met with strong objection from the St Catherine Chamber, which argued that the parish already had four prisons – the St Catherine District Prison, Tamarind Farm, Tredegar Park Approved School in Spanish Town and Fort Augusta Women’s Prison in Port Henderson.

The new facility, the government has argued, is necessary to alleviate overcrowding in existing prisons, which authorities contend are archaic.

Robotham’s sentiment, apparently widely shared in the town, was given further credence by the protracted outbreaks of violent crimes which frequently shut down commercial and social activities in the town and its immediate environs earlier this year.

Police attribute the high rate of murders to two violent gangs who are political rivals – ‘One Order’, which has links to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, and ‘Clansman’, which supports the governing People’s National Party.

Both have waged a bitter struggle for control of an extortion racket in the town.

Robotham dismissed the view that a new prison would generate employment in the area, and thereby help in reducing crime. He argued that more rehabilitation programmes should be implemented in the existing facilities before a new institution was built.

The chamber had made several recommendations to improve skills training in the St Catherine District Prison but they had not been implemented, Robotham charged.

“There is a lot of machinery for woodwork, metalwork and baking lying idle in the prison,” claimed Robotham, a former member of the prison’s Visitation Board. “With a new prison, I have no faith that it will be any different.”

– editorial@jamaicaobserver.com