Isat Buchanan, the attorney hired by the civil-rights group Stand Up for Jamaica to represent Williams, disclosed yesterday that his now 69-year-old client has been declared “fit to plead” but has not been to court in 48 years.
The report cited data compiled by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), which shows that a total of 146 mentally ill persons deemed unfit to plead are currently being held at the governor general’s pleasure or at the court’s pleasure at three penal institutions in Kingston and St Catherine.
INDECOM cited, in the report, the case of ‘GW’, who has been incarcerated for 49 years at the court’s pleasure for the offence of murder.
Buchanan, who visited Williams at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre yesterday, told The Gleaner that up to February this year, a prison psychologist had declared his client fit to plead.
Amid plans to write to the governor general and the director of public prosecutions to secure Williams’ quick release, the attorney questioned the initial decision by the police to arrest his client on a murder charge at a time when he was mentally ill.
