CLAIMS by high-risk prisoners at the New Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston that they were being physically abused by Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) solders were countered last week by army officials who demonstrated the extent to which inmates will go to frustrate efforts by military personnel to maintain order at the prison.

On Friday, JDF officers supported by the leadership of the correctional services and the police presented journalists with stomach churning video footage, detailing the rowdy behaviour of detainees and some of the country’s most ruthless criminals, who are locked away in a section of the facility referred to as security post 11.

That section of the facility has been manned by the JDF since 2004.

Over the past week, the soldiers have come under fire from human rights groups and defence attorneys after six inmates complained to the Supreme Court, in a letter, that they were being subjected to routine beatings at the hands of the soldiers.

The six inmates — Tesha Miller, Joel Andem, Kevin ‘Richie Pooh’ Tyndale, Michael McLean, Leighton ‘Livity’ Coke and Christopher ‘Dog Paw’ Linton — have since gone on hunger strike to protest against the treatment they claim is being meted out to them.

In one of the scenes presented by the military, inmates were shown littering the corridor outside their cells with a range of items including faeces, urine and food. In one of the more bizarre scenes, an inmate lifted a container and doused one of the soldiers. Military personnel later explained that the container had a mixture of faeces and urine. Although the soldier appeared to have retaliated by rushing towards the inmate, he was restrained by other military personnel who had intervened. The inmate was reportedly protesting against being removed from his cell to facilitate a clean up of the area.

According to Colonel Sean Prendergast of the Department of Correctional Services, the inmates engage in this practice as part of efforts to frustrate military personnel.

He says in some instances, the army personnel allow the garbage, which includes faeces to pile up outside the cells of the rowdy inmates as a means of punishing them, and in order to get them to desist from depositing their waste in that manner. “So we have it sit there for a while, trying to encourage them to clean it. If that fails, before it becomes a health issue, we bring inmates from another institutions to clean the area, because we don’t want to have an outbreak of disease and infections,” he said.

“I don’t want them to see staff members cleaning these areas, because it would be a small victory for them that they mess the place up and then have our staff dealing with the most reprehensible items in the corridor. In order for the corridor to be cleaned the inmates have to be removed to another section of the facility, as they have been known to threaten the cleaners,” said Prendergast who added that the inmates spare no time in depositing their waste, the moment they are returned to the cell block.

The footage also showed the inmates throwing numerous objects through the bars of their cells and at the surveillance cameras positioned along the cell block.

While acknowledging that life in prison is never easy, Prendergast explained that the inmates in that section of the remand centre are allowed one hour per day outside their cells. However, if there is an uprising, the privilege is withdrawn, until normality returns.

“We have had several cycles of this type of behaviour from the various inmates that have been there. This is nothing new. However, it has started to get more intense with the current grouping and we are trying to address it as best we can,” Prendergast said.