Gov’t Looking to Reduce Numbers in Maximum Security Prisons

KINGSTON — The Ministry of National Security is exploring options to reduce overcrowding in the island’s maximum security prisons.

State Minister in the Ministry, Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett, informed that he has requested that an assessment be conducted of all inmates in these facilities to determine whether some of them can be transferred to low security institutions.

“The medium and the low-risk institutions, they have capacity. When you look at the inmate load of all of the various institutions, you find that the only ones that are really overcrowded are the maximum security,” he told JIS News recently.

Dr. Bartlett said close to 1,200 inmates are housed at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Facility, which has a capacity of 800.

The Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility, which currently houses some 1,500 inmates, has a capacity of 850.

The Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility in Kingston and the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre are the island’s two major adult maximum security prisons.

By Chris Patterson, JIS Reporter