Every major public investment invites scrutiny, and rightly so. Jamaicans have every right to ask whether limited public resources could be better spent elsewhere. The proposed correctional facility in St Catherine has prompted exactly that conversation.

Many have questioned whether those resources would be better directed towards hospitals, schools, housing, or other pressing national priorities. These are legitimate questions, particularly at a time when every dollar of public investment must deliver value to the Jamaican people.

But the conversation should not end there. We must also ask ourselves another question: What is the cost of maintaining a correctional system that was never designed for the Jamaica of today?

Too often, the public conversation has focused solely on the cost of constructing a new correctional facility. Far less attention has been given to the economic, social, and human cost of continuing to rely on infrastructure inherited from another century, facilities never intended to meet modern correctional standards, support rehabilitation, or serve communities that have since grown around them.

This is not simply about building another correctional facility, it is about completing the transformation of one of Jamaica’s oldest public institutions. Like many of our national institutions, our correctional system has evolved from foundations laid during the colonial era. Over time we have adapted those institutions to meet changing needs, but there comes a point at which adaptation is no longer enough.

Facilities such as the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre and the Spanish Town Adult Correctional Centre have served our country faithfully for generations. When they were established in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were built in locations that reflected the needs and settlement patterns of that era. Over the decades, however, thriving residential, commercial, and civic communities have grown around them.

That reality presents challenges that extend well beyond the walls of the institutions themselves. Correctional facilities of this nature were never intended to sit at the heart of growing residential communities. Over time, their continued presence can constrain thoughtful urban planning, influence how surrounding communities develop, and limit opportunities for those areas to realise their full social and economic potential. Communities should be able to grow, attract investment, and evolve without the permanent presence of infrastructure that was designed for a very different era.

Buildings constructed for another century, and in locations that have fundamentally changed, cannot reasonably be expected to meet the demands of 21st century Jamaica.

As minister of state with responsibility for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), I have visited our correctional institutions, spoken with officers, engaged with inmates participating in rehabilitation programmes, and seen both the dedication of our staff and the limitations imposed by ageing infrastructure.

Those experiences have reinforced one simple conclusion: Lasting correctional reform requires more than good intentions. It requires sound policy, committed people, and infrastructure designed to support both. That transformation is already underway.

The cost of maintaining outdated correctional infrastructure is measured in far more than ageing buildings. It is measured in the limitations placed on rehabilitation programmes, the challenges faced by correctional officers working in facilities that have long outlived their intended purpose, the difficulty of integrating modern technology into institutions never designed for it, and the missed opportunity to fully realise the reforms already underway. Put simply, outdated infrastructure limits what our correctional system can achieve.

Over the past few years, Jamaica has embarked on one of the most significant periods of correctional reform in its history. The introduction of the new National Correctional Services Policy has established a modern framework for corrections, recognising that while secure custody remains essential, public safety is also strengthened through rehabilitation, successful reintegration, staff development, and stronger institutional governance.

This reflects a significant shift in how we approach corrections in Jamaica.

Most people who enter our correctional institutions will one day return to our communities. The goal is not simply to punish unlawful behaviour, but to reduce the likelihood that it is repeated. The question is whether they return more likely to reoffend or better equipped to become productive citizens.

Across the DCS, that philosophy is already being translated into action. Rehabilitation programmes have expanded to include vocational training, agriculture, entrepreneurship, and digital skills, while young people in our juvenile institutions are now being exposed to coding, robotics, and music production. We have strengthened reintegration services, expanded the number of case managers and social workers, recruited additional correctional officers and, in September 2024, opened Jamaica’s first purpose-built infant nursery at the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre. Together, these initiatives reflect a more balanced approach — one that recognises rehabilitation and accountability as complementary, not competing, objectives.

The results are beginning to show. The DCS recorded a 27 per cent offender readmission rate in 2025, down from 30 per cent in 2024, while the overall number of offenders returning to custody has continued to decline over the past decade. According to the DCS, these improvements reflect expanded interventions focused on behavioural change, rehabilitation, and reintegration, demonstrating that when rehabilitation is properly supported, it strengthens public safety.

Our experience in Jamaica is part of a broader conversation taking place across the Caribbean. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to engage with correctional officials in Guyana. One lesson stood out. Across the Caribbean, governments are recognising that modern correctional systems cannot be built on policy alone. Progressive legislation, committed officers, rehabilitation programmes, and modern infrastructure must work together.

That lesson reinforced something I had already come to appreciate here in Jamaica.

Good policy needs the right environment to succeed. Some challenges simply cannot be solved through renovation alone. Buildings constructed centuries ago cannot simply be retrofitted to accommodate digital learning, dedicated mental health services, well-equipped vocational workshops, or contemporary security technology. At some point, every country must decide whether it will continue adapting yesterday’s infrastructure or build for tomorrow’s needs.

It is in this context that the proposed correctional facility in St Catherine should be understood. This project is about more than building a prison. It is an investment in the future of corrections in Jamaica.

The proposed investment of between $8 billion and $10 billion will provide purpose-built infrastructure to support modern rehabilitation programmes, enhanced security, improved operational efficiency, and better working conditions for correctional officers. It will also align Jamaica’s correctional system with modern legal standards and the human welfare expectations of a professional correctional service.

Importantly, the proposed location reflects sound planning principles. As Jamaica continues to grow, specialised correctional facilities should be located in areas specifically suited to their purpose, rather than remaining surrounded by expanding residential communities. The proposed St. Catherine correctional facility reflects that principle, providing a purpose-built location where correctional services can operate safely and effectively while allowing neighbouring communities the opportunity to develop and thrive.

An effective correctional system must protect the public, support rehabilitation, equip correctional officers to perform their duties effectively, and uphold the dignity of every individual entrusted to the care of the State. These are not competing objectives; together, they define what effective corrections should be.

The policy direction has already been established, The reforms are underway, and the early results are encouraging. The next step is ensuring that the infrastructure keeps pace with that progress.

The Government has identified the land and advanced the planning for this nationally significant project. The remaining step is securing the statutory planning approvals required for construction to commence. Those applications are currently before the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.

Projects of this significance must, of course, pass through the appropriate planning and regulatory processes. That is both necessary and appropriate. However, we must also recognise that every delay has consequences. Every year that passes is another year in which correctional officers continue working in facilities that have long outlived their intended purpose, rehabilitation programmes operate within outdated infrastructure, and the opportunity to deliver correctional services in facilities designed to meet today’s standards is deferred.

Every month this project is delayed is another month in which the correctional system we have envisioned exists in policy, but not yet in practice.

Correctional reform cannot remain confined to policy documents. At some point, we must build the infrastructure that allows those policies to succeed. Ultimately, this conversation is not about whether Jamaica needs another prison, it is about whether Jamaica is prepared to complete the modernisation of one of its oldest public institutions.

Every generation inherits institutions from those who came before. Our responsibility is not simply to preserve them, but to ensure they continue serving the needs of the people they exist to protect. I believe that is exactly what this investment represents.

It represents the infrastructure needed to translate Jamaica’s correctional reforms into lasting change. The vision has been established and the need has been demonstrated. Now it is time to build the infrastructure that will allow those reforms to deliver the outcomes they were designed to achieve.

The opportunity before us is to move this nationally significant project from approval to reality. That is an opportunity Jamaica should seize, not simply for today’s generation, but for those who will inherit the institutions we choose to build.

Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn is minister of state in the Ministry of National Security with responsibility for Department of Correctional Services.

Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn .