- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Tower Street Adult Correctional facility in downtown Kingston, one of the island's maximum security prisons.
Damion Mitchell, News Coordinator
THE GOVERNMENT is moving to cut the cost to operate the island's penal institutions.
According to Commissioner of Corrections, Major Richard Reese, the reintroduction of the Conditional Release Programme for low-risk inmates, and the implementation of an electronic monitoring system are the latest initiatives being considered.
Currently, it costs about $450,000 for each prisoner or just under $2 billion a year to provide care and custody for the more than 4,000 inmates in the island's 11 penal facilities.
40 PER CENT REDUCTION
But Major Reese says the electronic tagging system would result in a reduction of up to 40 per cent of this cost.
"It's an effective option," Major Reece told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, explaining that through this system, certain low-risk prisoners would be electronically tagged and released for monitoring by the probation services.
He says already there have been successful demonstrations and plans are now under way for a pilot testing. But according to Major Reese, legislative changes will be necessary to the Parole Act, the Bail Act and the Corrections Act.
In the meantime, Major Reese says the Jamaican Bar Association and human rights groups are supporting the new electronic tagging system.
NO CAPITAL COST
He says the system will be provided by the supplier at no capital cost to the Government and in keeping with other jurisdictions, offenders would be charged daily for wearing the electronic tags. Commissioner Reese could not indicate a start-up date, given the current stage of the project.
Meanwhile, Major Reese says for 2004, there was a reduction in the number of persons being incarcerated compared with the previous year, but he says given the nature of the crimes committed, those incarcerated had had longer sentences imposed.
Major Reese says for this year, there has been an increase in the number of offenders sentenced to do community service.
