KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of National Security today revealed that over a one-year period ending January 2017, the Department of Correctional Services has reclassified 428 inmates in an ongoing exercise aimed at reducing the population in the island’s maximum-security facilities.  

The reclassification exercise, according to the ministry, is carried out by a Classification Committee, which sits at each of the island’s penal institutions. Previously the superintendent at each facility carried out this exercise.

The project focuses on inmates at the Tower Street and St Catherine Adult Correctional Centres.

Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services Ina Hunter-Fairweather said: “When an offender is sentenced by the court to serve time, that person is sent directly from the court to the St Catherine, Tower Street or Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centres.  At the institutions, they are interviewed by the Classification Committee, where the lower-risk inmates are re-classified and moved to the appropriate institutions.  They can also be recommended by the Committee to participate in such community projects as bushing and building renovations, or to be a part of the new electronic tagging/monitoring project, where they are tagged with an electronic device and sent back to their communities to serve the remainder of their sentences, while being monitored by the Department of Correctional Services.”

Between January and November last year, 413 of the 428 reclassified inmates were from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, Tamarind Farm and St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre.

The largest contingent of 81 inmates from the St Catherine and Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre was reclassified in May, 2016; while the second largest number of 56 inmates from St Catherine and Tower Street Adult Correctional Centres were reclassified in November last year.

The third largest number of reclassified inmates was 44 from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in January 2016 and 44 from the St Catherine and Tower Street Adult Correctional Centres in June 2016.

State Minister in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Pearnel Charles Jr reiterated the importance of the reclassification exercise to the management of the correctional centres.

“At present, the Tower Street and St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centres are reception centres for convicted offenders. The reclassification exercise is essential to reducing the burden on the those institutions, as well as supporting the rehabilitation agenda by diverting inmates to specific programmes based on the outcome of their risk assessment,” Senator Charles said.

He further stated that the two pronged approach of electronic monitoring and the reclassification exercise will further support the government’s efforts to reduce the inmate population and recidivism in Jamaica.