Her Majesty’s Prison continues to be burdened with petty criminals and there is need for legislation that would bring about more “creative sanctions to deal with such offenders, Superintendent of Prisons Dr. Ellison Rahming said on Tuesday.
Authorities at the prison are conducting a review to get a better idea of the various classifications of prisoners and what they are being held for, he indicated.
“The preliminary analysis would suggest that a fairly high percentage of persons come for very, very, minor offences,” Dr. Rahming said. “Of course that contributes to what I call the bloating. I think we need a broader menu of sanctions-The fact of the matter is the prison ought to be for hardened, dangerous, violent, unrepentant offenders.”
He pointed for example to a recent case where a judge sentenced someone to a day in prison after that person’s cell phone reportedly rang in court.
The need to keep such “offenders” out of prison is actually something Dr. Rahming has been pushing for years, but he indicated that the prison is not able to take action on the issue as it is duty bound to follow court orders.
“When you have a prison that is overpopulated, especially with those persons who are just nuisance offenders, it affects your ability to put in place a kind of programming of remediation that is necessary for those persons who are truly in need of help,” he said.
The prison superintendent also noted that nuisance offenders cost taxpayers a considerable amount of money, particularly if they are sentenced to terms of one year or more.
He said that such offenders ought to be ordered to give community service or be made to face other sanctions.
Every year, it costs about $10,000 to support one inmate at Her Majesty’s Prison, which is now home to about 1,500.
“Taxpayers ought to be concerned,” Dr. Rahming said. “We just need to be more creative.”
Another group of prisoners Dr. Rahming believes authorities must take a serious look at are those known as “lifers”, meaning prisoners on life sentences.
Between 1973 and 1993, 115 of them were sentenced, according to court records which show that 15 have since been released and none has returned to prison.
Dr. Rahming believes that this fact possibly says something.
“It says a number of things,” he noted. “It may say that persons who were sentenced to life and were released after serving a long period of sentence [may have] reached an age in their life [whereby] just through the passage of time they may have made a turnaround.
“It may be as simple as that because we know that with age there is a lessening proclivity toward criminal activity. So it’s something we could arrive at scientifically if we really take the time to look at it as other countries have done.”
He said there is merit in having an ongoing review of persons who are sentenced to long periods.
“Those persons who deserve to stay in for their natural life ought to stay in,” he said. “Persons who may merit being looked at ought to be looked at after having paid a significant portion of their debt to society.”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
