Jamaica’s courts are being blamed for a human-rights crisis at correctional facilities after an Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) report unearthed that an 81-year-old man died in the custody of a facility after a 40-year wait for trial.
An inmate is detained at the pleasure of the queen, the governor general, or the court if that person is unfit to plead or is found guilty but is suffering from a mental disorder.
A person is sent to them with an order to say they’re to be held for a certain amount of years, or indefinitely,” said Anderson, who declined to cast culpability at the feet of administrators of correctional facilities.
“I blame the courts for the situation that exists in those correctional centres,” Anderson told The Gleaner yesterday.
Anderson, who has for decades worked to free mentally ill inmates lost in the system, has suggested that correctional centres employ psychiatrists if they are going to hold people who are intellectually or otherwise challenged.
