By Balford Henry,
Senior Reporter
THE STORY of 76-year old mentally challenged Ivan Barrows' incarceration for some 29 years without trial, has highlighted a situation currently affecting more than 100 inmates in various correctional institutions.
Commissioner of Corrections, Lt. Col. John Prescod, yesterday admitted that there were about 150 such inmates, most of whom are imprisoned at the Tower Street (General Penitentiary) and St. Catherine (District Prison) Correctional Centres awaiting trial on various charges.
Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Nancy Anderson, said yesterday that with Mr. Barrows (and not Boroughs as published yesterday) secreted in an old people's home in St. Elizabeth, it was turning its attention to another long-serving victim of the process.
The focus of their attention will be Gilbert Ledgister (whose age was not ascertained). Ledgister has been incarcerated at the St. Catherine District Prison since 1974.
Commissioner Prescod said, however, that the current figure is down from a high of 300. He said that the others had been diagnosed as fit to plead before the court and have since been released. There are about eight women in that category at Fort Agusta.
Another 25 "mentally challenged" persons are in the prisons awaiting the Governor General's Pleasure, although the Privy Council ruled some two years ago that the action was unconstitutional. The Government attempted to amend the law to change their sentences to life imprisonment last year, but legal advisers said that the amendment was unconstitutional and was withdrawn to be re-drafted but has not yet returned to Parliament.
Lt. Col. Prescod said when the mentally challenged inmates are placed in the prisons, they are kept in specific areas, away from other prisoners, and are seen regularly by the prison psychiatrist Dr. George Leveridge. He said that there was no place else for them to be kept pending their trial and release.
There are allowed to take part in various activities including gardening, sports and other activities and the chaplain works very closely with them.
A number of persons connected with the prison services, including former medical officer Dr. Raymoth Notice, says that a prison environment was not suitable for these persons.
Chief operating officer of the Bellevue Hospital, Yvonne Miller, told The Gleaner yesterday, however, that the hospital was not to be blamed for these persons not being kept there.
She said that there had been a forensic ward at the hospital, where prisoners with mental problems were kept and guarded by prison warders. But, after a prolonged work stoppage by nurses there in the 1970s, they were removed and the ward was left vacant. She said that the ward may not have been re-opened afterwards because of the shortage of nurses, which followed their mass emigration to the United States in the 1970s.
The "big, brick structure" was eventually demolished to make way for the Manley Meadows housing scheme, which was built on lands formerly belonging to the hospital.
"People come here from time to time from the prisons for treatment, handcuffed and with warders, we don't turn them away. The problem is that we do not have the facilities for them to stay, any more," she said.
In the meantime, Miss Anderson says that a procedure which could speed up the trial of these persons, has been drafted by Dr. Leveridge and referred to the Government for approval.
She said that the people who have been diagnosed as not being fit to plead in court are not getting back to court for their cases to be dealt with quickly enough. The new procedural manual should change the situation, she said.
Opposition spokesman on Justice, Delroy Chuck, suggested that the problem was that these person get lost in the prison system and sometimes did not get required medical treatment, which could range from an injection to a pill.
Commissioner Prescod said that this could not be said about Mr. Barrows, as since he has become Commissioner he has seen a psychiatrist regularly and has been assessed every year. He admitted that Mr. Barrows was assessed as fit to plea from as far back as 1988, but could not explain why he was not taken to court and why his situation was allowed to deteriorate until the arrival of Dr. Leveridge in 1996. Dr. Leveridge diagnosed Mr. Barrows as fit to plead from as far back as 1998, but he was not take to court until Tuesday.
Miss Anderson explained that it is not in the best interest of the victims to speed up the process of releasing them without accommodation for them on the outside.
"We don't want them to just open up the jails and let them all out. We have to find a place for them to stay or relatives who will take care of them. It took us three to four months just to find a place for him (Barrows) to live, because he had no money and he is mentally ill," Miss Anderson said.
"It is quite a challenge to get a 76-year-old man into a home," said psychiatric social worker Roger Neil, who played an important role in Mr. Barrows' case.
Mr. Neil said that the home which eventually accepted Mr. Barrows, took him on condition that their name and location would not be revealed. He said that the Mona Heights Christian Brethren Church was instrumental in both finding a home and in funding his stay.
Persons who are detained in prison pending a determination of their fitness to plead before the court are not released unless provisions have been made for their accommodation.
