While lawyers spoke passionately about deplorable conditions and the absence of basic decency in police lock-ups last week, the general feedback from the public reiterated to them that most Jamaicans are ignorant to the difference between serving time in prison and being detained in a lock-up.

Criminal defence attorney Donahue Martin told the Jamaica Observer that Jamaicans need to understand that when one is in custody at a lock-up, that individual has not been convicted of an offence.

“The conditions don’t need to be as demeaning as they are. The comments about why should they care for criminals, I get it a lot because I am an attorney who practises criminal defence and we are always hated until somebody wants us. But generally, as Jamaicans, I don’t think we have a lot of public education around legal issues and our legal system. So generally, Jamaicans don’t really appreciate it until somebody for them, or them themselves end up in an issue that would place them before the legal system,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“Some persons don’t understand, for example, that when you’re charged with a serious offence, you generally go into custody, whether or not you did it. And you do spend a significant time in custody and the vast majority of persons who interact with the criminal justice system don’t actually get bail.”

If the allegations speak to violence or “loose” association with criminal organisations, Martin explained, bail is not granted.

“A significant portion of our young men; when they should be learning a skill and advancing themselves, they find themselves in custody for long periods and that spot in their resumes forces them to have a position of unemployability,” he said.

Defence attorney Tamika Harris added: “There is a general disregard for detainees, and that is most unfortunate because not all persons arrested are guilty of an offence, and even if so, they are still to be treated with humanity. Treat people like animals and they will behave like animals.”

Attorney Sayeed Bernard told the Sunday Observer that any “single one of us can end up in a lock-up.

“All it takes is us being arrested for suspicion of something. You are not even charged, and you will be in a lock-up. That is how easy it can be for one to end up in a lock-up. And so, I think this argument about people are criminals so we should not care about the lock-ups is one that is farcical at the very least,” Bernard said.

Bernard stressed that the probability of an averaged person ending up in a lock-up is not far-fetched.

“Frankly speaking, it could be you, it could be your son, your daughter that ends up in a lock-up. Even if the police has no case against the person, they can lock them up for reasonable suspicion. And until it is ventilated in court, and you get your day in court, anyone can have to stay in lock-up for a little while. So, it is not a case where lock-up is for criminals. Prison is for convicted criminals, not lock-ups.”