From Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) to The Bahamas Department of Correctional Services?

Prison To Be Renamed–Overcrowding Addressed

By Kendea Smith
The Bahama Journal




There are more than 1,500 Bahamians imprisoned at Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) – twice as many as the Fox Hill compound is designed to hold at capacity, according to National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage.

That’s one of the reasons why the government is seeking parliamentary approval on the Correctional Services Bill 2013.

Dr. Nottage, who moved the bill in the House of Assembly Wednesday, also revealed that there are 800 inmates in Maximum Security.

Of that number, 92 people are awaiting trial for murder; 200 inmates are under the age of 17 – 44 of whom are 16-years-old.

There are several facets of the bill.

The first part, Dr. Nottage says, deals with renaming HMP the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

The bill, if passed, would also facilitate a new title for the head of the prisons.

He or she would now be called the commissioner of correctional services.

“Ultimately, we are changing the prison to a correctional facility. We are changing the objectives from the emphasis on incarceration to placing an emphasis on rehabilitation and training so as persons who are admitted in prison will return to society perhaps better equipped to function in society as a lawful citizen than they were when they were admitted,” Dr. Nottage said.

“The commissioner shall have responsibility for the general management of all correctional facilities ensuring the inmates are treated in a humane manner; ensuring that discipline and security are enforced; encouraging reformation training and the rehabilitation of inmates; proper deportment among staff members; providing annual reports; administering periodic drug testing to be performed on inmates; psychiatric testing when necessary and so forth.”

“This will be a very important task and this person will be critical to the proper change in strategy and philosophy of the prison,” Dr. Nottage added.

The minister said the bill also addresses issues in the prisons such as drugs, cell phones and weapons circulating around the prison.

“In our prisons we have many issues,” Dr. Nottage said. “We have problems with drugs and cell phones. How they get into the prison only God knows. Prisoners are the most innovative people on this side of Jordan.”

Other issues include “slopping” which means the use of buckets for human waste, which has been going on at the prison for decades.

The minister said the bill also makes provisions for the establishment of a Correctional Services Review Board, which would serve as a watchdog for conditions at the prison.

“This board will have the function of keeping the prison under review constantly and advise the minister of all aspects of correctional facilities to visit and to inspect once every quarter whatever correctional facilities that we have and to be the watchdog for the public or the minister,” Dr. Nottage said.

“This is very important because I am led to believe had we had this review board with these kinds of responsibilities over the years then the prison would not have deteriorated as to what we have today.”
Dr. Nottage said a lot of Bahamians have the view that people who are convicted of crime should “be locked away and we should throw away the key.”

“We have to remember number one that that is inhumane. Number two most of these people are going to return to society and the way we treat them will have a very serious impact on how they or if they are able to integrate into society,” he said.

“There is a very, very important thing that they must understand. There are people who go to work there and they have not committed any crime and they have to exist in those same conditions. The trouble is that we do have priorities in the country and I think many people would consider the prison the least of those priorities but when you have 1,500 Bahamians living in there every day… the campus is so big that there are a lot of good things that could go on there if we could just get it right.”

Other aspects of the bill include employment and earnings of inmates, addressing the release of inmates and offences within the prison.

October 10, 2013

Jones Bahamas

Caribbean Blog International

22 Cuban men detained at Her Majesty’s Prison in Fox Hill who were allegedly involved in the uprising at Carmichael Road Detention Centre, and other Cuban nationals who entered The Bahamas illegally - to be repatriated

The Bahamas government officials have decided that it would be best to just repatriate the Cuban immigrants allegedly involved in the Carmichael Road Detention Centre uprising - than to charge them with a crime

After the riot, Cuban Consul General to The Bahamas Felix Wilson told The Bahama Journal that the “criminal” act carried out by some Cubans must be condemned

Cubans Being Sent Home

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

14th March, 2005

Government officials are preparing to repatriate early this week a group of nearly 30 Cuban nationals who entered The Bahamas illegally.

The arrangements are being made through the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Immigration in conjunction with the Cuban Consulate office in The Bahamas.

Among those set to be repatriated are the 22 Cuban men being detained at Her Majesty’s Prison in Fox Hill, who were allegedly involved in the uprising at the Detention Centre on Carmichael Road last December.

Instead of pushing for charges in the matter, government officials have decided that it would be best to just repatriate the immigrants.

The Bahama Journal reported last week that there is reportedly concern that charging the Cubans with a crime would result in serious backlash from the Cuban-American community in Miami.

But some people believe repatriating them could also have the same effect.

 A source close to the decision also said that it would be cheaper to send the Cubans home rather than spend money caring for them in prison.

Under the treaty The Bahamas has with Cuba, Cubans found in Bahamian territory must be repatriated.  But a key international convention requires The Bahamas to first determine whether immigrants qualify for political refugee status.  If that were the case, they would be granted asylum.

Authorities have noted that the reason why Haitians are often repatriated faster than Cubans is due to the fact that while they (Haitians) may be economic refugees, they are seldom-political refugees.

The Cubans believed to be responsible for the Detention Centre uprising were sent to the prison immediately after the incident and government officials had promised to keep them at the facility for “safekeeping” until their removal to their place of origin.

Immigration authorities had said that, “The government remains committed to fulfilling its international obligations and will make every effort to repatriate all individuals at the Detention Centre as soon as possible, once those obligations are completed.”

Minister of Immigration Vincent Peet told The Bahama Journal on Sunday that in all, 29 Cubans will be repatriated on Tuesday.

“The government believes it is in the best interest of all parties involved and it will save Bahamian taxpayers the expense of keeping the Cubans in jail,” he said.

Among those expected to be sent back to the Communist island is Francisco Napoles Valdez, the illegal Cuban immigrant who had escaped from the Detention Centre immediately after the riot and was soon recaptured.

After the riot, Cuban Consul General to The Bahamas Felix Wilson told The Bahama Journal that the “criminal” act carried out by some Cubans must be condemned.

He had also expressed hopes that the illegal Cuban immigrants who started the fire and led the attack at the centre be repatriated as soon as possible; adding at the time that a clear message must be sent that resorting to crime is not the answer to frustrations that some illegal immigrants may feel.

In the days following the uprising, the cries from the Cuban-American group, Vigilia Mambisa, faded and authorities are hoping it remains that way.

The uprising had placed the spotlight on alleged human rights abuses at the Detention Centre, which government officials were forced to deny.  Repeated claims eventually led to authorities appointing former prison superintendent Edwin Culmer as director of the facility.

Since the uprising, the Cubans being detained at the prison have also made it to the front pages of the Miami Herald, making claims of abuse.

It put authorities here on the defensive again.  Former Minister of Immigration and now leader of the Free National Movement Senator Tommy Turnquest said as far as he’s concerned, government officials are following proper procedure by adhering to the treaty the country has with Cuba.

But he also said any illegal immigrant who may have broken the law here should “face the music.”

He added, however, that part of their sentence could very well be that they are repatriated.

“If they broke laws in The Bahamas they ought to be subject to Bahamian laws,” Mr. Turnquest said.  “They ought to be tried, but over and above that I don’t know that there is anything other than what they’re doing that the government could have done.  It’s not easy, but governance is not easy.”