The first person to feel the fangs of the Corrections (Amendment) Act, 2021 is a 37-year-old inmate at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre.

The prisoner, a labourer of Salt Spring, Green Island in Hanover, was charged with possession of a prohibited electronic communication device after a search of his cell on February 17 this year unearthed two cellular phones and cellphone accessories.

Under the legislation, which was passed to impose not just heavier fines, but provide for prison time for officers who are found to be in breach, offenders convicted in the parish courts can be fined up to $3 million or be imprisoned for three years while a second or subsequent offence will attract a fine of $5 million or up to five years imprisonment. Those convicted in the circuit court can be sentenced to a maximum seven years for a first offence, and 15 years for a second or subsequent offence.

The increasing use of telecommunication devices by inmates to maintain contact with criminal networks outside of the confines of correctional institutions has seen incarcerated criminals — some of whom are themselves reputed gang leaders — directly and/or indirectly influencing criminal gangs and drug activities and ordering killings from behind bars, which has been a major concern.

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang in 2021 told the House of Representatives that the use of contraband items by prisoners has been widespread with 5,431 phones seized in prisons between 2016-2017 and 2019-2020.

But director of the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security at The University of the West Indies, retired Professor Anthony Harriott, believes that finding the fix for eliminating contraband in penal institutions has been needlessly complicated over time with one key element being downplayed.

“This problem has been with us forever and I don’t think it’s rocket science to get a fix of that problem. At various times, technological solutions have been discussed. I think that there are technological aids but it’s a human resource problem if you wish, in the first instance,” he told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“I really do believe that prison superintendent, the people who manage the prisons, have to be held accountable on this matter. People don’t get mobile phones by magic; that to me is a matter of accountability and so for the Ministry of National Security to get that sorted out,” he said.

Speaking to suggestions that correctional officers be rotated and swapped around occasionally to prevent relationships being formed with inmates, Professor Harriott said, “that is management of the problem, that’s not solving the problem. While management of the problem is better than nothing at all, I would set my problem a little higher than that by rooting out the problem at a higher level.

“It’s not so difficult for the system to know who are collaborating with criminals and providing them with this kind of access and so forth, I don’t see how that could be so difficult,” he told the Observer.

In 2017, the national security ministry announced that all correctional officers and recruits are to be polygraphed as part of new measures aimed at cutting the smuggling of cellphones and other contraband into correctional facilities. That announcement coincided with increasing concern about the recording of music by inmates in maximum security facilities.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during his budget presentation this March, said the authorities will intensify this effort

“Regardless of how thick we make the walls, the number of cameras installed and how far we locate the prison, if there is collusion between guards and prisons, phones and other contraband will get in and messages and instructions will get out. This is why the Government amended the Corrections Act in December 2021, adding criminal sanctions to those who facilitate and benefit from the trading of contraband. The first charges have been laid and a matter related to contraband is now before the courts,” he told Parliament then.