taxpayers are spending millions of dolllars each year to incarcerate people who could begiven alternative sentencing so relieving the problem of overcrowding at the prison, according to Dr. Elliston Rahming, Chairman of the Prison Reform Committee.
More than $2 million per year is spent taking care of about 200 people held on remand at Her Majesty’s Fox Hill Prison. These prisoners are part of a group of 755 men at the maximum security unit, which was designed to accommodate a maximum of 450. They are being housed with convicted murderers, armed robbers and rapists, while they await trial for charges as minor as littering.
Some persons have been on remand for two or three years, said Dr. Rahming, costing the taxpayer $10,800 each year per person.
Dr. Rahming said alternative sentencing is necessary in order to create a true correctional facility. In some countries, he explained, there is the penal institution and whenone’s time of incarceration is coming to an end, they are sent to a rehabilitation or correctional facility in order to re-integrate them into society. However, in the Bahamas, there is only one facility, and it must do both jobs.
Source: Felicity Ingraham, The Tribune
