DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has called for a radical shift in the way inmates with mental health issues are incarcerated.
Her comments came the heels of yesterday's decision by a St Catherine Parish Court judge to free George Williams — the mentally ill man, who spent 50 years in prison without a trial — after the prosecution indicated that it would be discontinuing criminal proceedings against him on the basis that he was not fit to plead.
“We don't have that in Jamaica, but we can only hope that, in going forward, the powers that be — the policymakers — see the need to try to retrofit some facility, depending on the risk of these individuals, to offer several levels of treatment if it is that they are not able to be brought to a stage where they are fit to plead within a reasonable time so that we can proceed with the criminal proceedings or make a decision to stop the proceedings,” the DPP said.
Yesterday, the DPP said her office had to make several considerations in entering the nolle prosequi to discontinue the criminal proceedings against Williams.
For the remaining inmates deemed unfit to plead after several years in prison, she said: “What would be useful for the remaining persons that INDECOM indicated in their report is that, perhaps, a group of lawyers could take the initiative to expedite the matter to utilise process to come before the court and move the court to issue a writ to have them brought before it and then the process could start.”
