Visits To Correctional Facilities Suspended For 14 Days Starting Monday

The Department or Correctional Services (DCS) will be suspending all visits to correctional institutions for 14 days starting Monday (March 16).

During the period, the public will not be allowed to take food or care packages to these facilities.

Commissioner of Corrections, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Gary Rowe, said that the decision to suspend visits was made in consultation with health officials, and is in keeping the Government’s decision to halt all public gatherings in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19).

He was speaking to reporters during a visit to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston on Friday (March 13), which was part of a tour of penal facilities in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, who was on the tour, commended the DCS on the measures put in place to protect the health and well-being of persons in correctional facilities.

“We have seen the implementation of hand washing stations, we have seen stocks of gloves and facemasks, and hand sanitisers were distributed,” he said.

He assured that resource gaps will be filled “very quickly, to ensure that where there are needs, they can be addressed.”

Senator Samuda said he was heartened to see the agricultural programmes that have been implemented in the prisons, noting that he will be ensuring that they are expanded as part of the rehabilitation effort.

Also on the tour were senior officials from the Ministry and the DCS.

Other facilities visited were the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town; and the Horizon Adult Remand Centre and the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston.