EXECUTIVE director of the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights Arlene Harrison Henry has reiterated age-old calls for the establishment of a forensic psychiatric unit to hold mentally disordered individuals in conflict with law and who are unfit to plead.

Harrison Henry, a former public defender, says the need for such a facility has become even more apparent following the recent refusal by the Supreme Court to release six mentally disordered prisoners detained for years at the governor general’s pleasure because no institution or family members would take them.

“I read the judgment, I think the judge’s languages is appropriate… but notwithstanding all of what the judge has said there is a systemic problem in the country where persons who are mentally disordered are kept in correctional facilities,” Harrison Henry said. She noted that the number of years the individuals have been behind bars for was not disclosed, neither the offences for which they had been charged.

Justice Pusey, however, in handing down the judgement, indicated that the inmates had not been sentenced for the offences to which they were found unfit to plea, as no trial regarding their guilt had taken place.

Harrison Henry, however, noted that the fact that they were detained at the governor general’s pleasure “speaks to the length of detention”.

“The ICJHR has for years called for the establishment of a forensic psychiatric facility for persons who have these conditions and come into conflict with the criminal law and are unfit to plead and that has to be coupled with the fact that there were once held at Bellevue, Bellevue’s mandate now is more rehabilitative, some people need long term care,” she pointed out.

Bellevue Hospital, located in the Corporate Area, is the designated public psychiatric facility where mentally ill defendants should be detained. However, this responsibility was shifted onto the shoulders of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) in the 1979 when some 400 inmates were sent to the correctional services when the psychiatric unit closed.

That for Harrison Henry is an ill which must be atoned for.

“It is an indictment, a stain on our collective consciences when we allow the mentally impaired to be kept in prisons and correctional facilities. What we have to emphasise is the systemic failure of the state, the systemic failure of government after government to address and protect the right of those who are mentally disordered, it’s both sides that have this problem. If you check the data you would see that it occurred under a People’s National Party administration and I am not talking politically, I am saying you can’t lock down that section of Bellevue and send everybody to a correctional facility,” she noted.

“It is an indictment on us as a country that we would treat the most vulnerable in this sort of way and the court I think did the best it could. It is the state’s responsibility and you can’t just take these people and put them in an infirmary or a shelter, these people need care,” she added.

Harrison Henry’s call was echoed by executive director of rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) Mickel Jackson.

“Our advocacy continues to call on the state to prioritise establishing the forensic and specialised psychiatric facilities to address the unique needs of mentally ill inmates, providing them with access to the care and support they require, as well as investment in community-based mental health services to prevent unnecessary incarceration and provide early intervention for individuals at risk — reducing the likelihood of individuals entering the criminal justice system in the first place. No one should suffer the indignity of prolonged incarceration without the care and support they desperately need,” Jackson told the Jamaica Observer.

She said the case had resurrected the questions surrounding “how many mentally ill persons are actually still incarcerated and what measures are being taken to ensure these cases are examined promptly and social enquiry reports are timely done”. Furthermore, she said it begged the question as to how many other reviews have been initiated and the timeline for their completion.

“Given the significant time these individuals have already spent behind bars — often far exceeding the sentences for the offences committed, much more is needed. This situation is not just a failure of the justice system; it is an atrocity that perpetuates injustice. Families are left grappling with the emotional and financial burdens that arise from these prolonged incarcerations, often losing touch with loved ones due to the passage of time and the impact of lifelong health issues,” Jackson told the Observer.

“Indeed the length of incarceration was cited as one of the factors that affected the ability of the family to take in the individual. JFJ, for example, supported the release of individuals who have been incarcerated for as long as 45 years,” she said. Jackson also noted that the JFJ along with rights group Stand Up for Jamaica and attorneys from the Public Law Chambers, have filed a constitutional claim on behalf of some 300 mentally ill inmates behind bars. She, however, said given the early stages of this legal matter there could be no further comment at this time.

The six, who were represented by the Legal Aid Council and whose cases were heard between December 2022 and September this year, are among 14 for whom the council has filed applications before the courts “seeking a review of each applicant’s detention and their potential release with or without conditions”.

But Supreme Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey refused the applications, stating that “while the court has the authority to release the applicants, with or without conditions, it has chosen not to exercise the authority in this case”.

The decision, he said, was “driven by the absence of any sufficient evidence demonstrating that the applicants would be released into conditions favourable to their needs”.

He also said that having reviewed the evidence provided by the applicants, the court is of the view that the applicants continue to be unfit to plead and there is no likelihood that, even with treatment, these applicants will ever be fit to plead.

“The failure of the State to adequately address the issues faced by mentally disordered inmates may suggest a missed opportunity by the State to better support some of its most vulnerable citizens,” Justice Pusey said, in calling for implementation of the recommendations of the Mental Health (Offenders) Inquiry Committee Report, which was released in 2020.

The committee was commissioned by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes to probe the reasons for the failures leading to hundreds of mentally ill people in conflict with the law being detained in correctional institutions for protracted periods, some as much as five decades with half listed as awaiting trial.