DEFENDANTS in the ongoing trial of alleged members of the so-called Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman gang on Tuesday complained that they were “being treated like cattle”, after being transported to the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston in prison trucks which they said had been baked in the sweltering sun.

The trial, which typically begins at 10:00 am daily, had been set for a 2:00 pm start Tuesday due to administrative issues, hence the 25 defendants were not brought to the holding area early, as on other days.

Defence attorney Denise Hinson, addressing trial judge Justice Dale Palmer at the end of the day’s proceedings, said, “Mr Miller [accused gang leader] in particular and the other accused men are aggrieved [as] they believe that they are being treated as cattle.

“The truck [which transports them from the prisons] had been sitting outside in the heat. It’s all metal, even inside — it’s really like a cage with very little ventilation. It sat outside in the heat and came for them in the height of the afternoon sun… they said the heat inside the truck, though it was a short distance, was absolutely unbearable,” Hinson said.

The attorney said the defendants wanted the issue brought to the attention of the court so that if other occasions arose when the sitting would begin in the afternoon, they would still be brought early.

“It is indeed noted, counsel, and I trust and ask, to the extent that it can be accommodated, it is perhaps better… that they can be brought earlier at a time when it will result in the least discomfort,” Justice Palmer said in adjourning the matter.

The complaint comes in the wake of a call by two defence attorneys in the Tuesday, May 26 edition of the
Jamaica Observer for meaningful prison reform to include a fit-for-purpose correctional institution to house inmates and proper detention facilities.

— Alicia Dunkley-Willis