RELIGIOUS LEADERS, grappling for solutions to the deadly outbreak of crime in Spanish Town over several weeks, on Sunday, during one of a series of public prayer meetings dubbed 'Bawl Out', called for the removal of the St. Catherine District Prison from the centre of the town.
Stirred by the oratory of the Rev. Dr. Al Miller of Whole Life Ministries, the clergymen resolved to approach government to have the penal institution relocated and replaced by a garden-type facility to provide recreational activities.
They argue that the sordid background of the maximum security prison a place where innocent slaves were reportedly murdered centuries ago and the site where convicts have been executed is a bad omen.
"How can the parish be free to develop if at its centre is bondage?" asked Dr. Miller. "You have to organise, march and write petitions (as well as) get thousands of signatures. The prison must go from the centre of the town," he told hundreds of congregants assembled under a huge tent situated in the public bus park.
Over recent weeks, about 20 murders have been committed in Spanish Town, which has been in the grip of gang warfare over booty from an extortion racket. The number of murders committed nationally has gone past 900.
