MORE THAN 400 persons deemed mentally ill have been languishing in island's prisons, where they are being assaulted and sexually abused by other inmates, chairman of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, reported yesterday.
He said 275 of the inmates who are in the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre and another 130 at the Tower Street Correctional Centre have been detained because they had been found unfit to plead in court.
Dr. Barnett blasted the ineffectiveness of the legal and administrative systems set up to deal with these persons, noting nearly 200 of them had long been certified as fit to plead but have not been brought back before the courts to do so.
"While the numbers and extent of the delay are in themselves quite disturbing, the gross negligence and manifest injustice in many cases are even more appalling," he said.
Most of the detainees had been locked up for more than five years and in some cases more than 20, Dr. Barnett said, adding they were detained for minor offences for which they were unlikely to be imprisoned if found guilty.
The chairman of the Council also bemoaned the lack of suitable accommodation and medical facilities for the mentally ill persons at the two prisons, exposing them to physical harm.
"Many of them are locked up with hardened criminals and sexual deviants and are thus assaulted and sexually abused," Dr. Barnett said.
The Gleaner was unable to reach Commissioner of Corrections, Lt. Colonel John Prescod, yesterday as he was said to be off the island, while his deputy was unavailable.
Meanwhile, Dr. Barnett called for the release of the persons who had been imprisoned for long periods and the speedy trial of those who were considered fit to plead in court. He also wants the Government to offer help for those released as well as provide adequate care for those who have to remain in the prisons.
"It would be inhumane to throw them out into the streets without any support mechanism," he said. "It is the obligation of the Government to provide them with the social and financial support necessary."
He has insisted the treatment of the inmates violates international standards and has argued it would be an erosion of their human rights to expose them to a trial after such great delays.
