An elderly man who is mentally ill and who was deemed unfit to plead has been locked away between jails and prison for 16 years for smashing a windscreen.
“When he went to court, he was deemed unfit to plead and has, basically, remained behind bars between the lock-ups at Ulster Spring, Clark’s Town, and Falmouth (all in Trelawny), and the St Catherine District Prison (in Spanish Town).”
It is unclear how many times Small has appeared before the court, but records at the Trelawny Parish Court showed that his matter was called up twice in 2019 and once this year.
Former prison doctor Raymoth Notice said that while he is aware of efforts to help prisoners with mental-health challenges, the stress associated with incarceration often frustrated inmates’ response to treatment.
Had the Trelawny Municipal Corporation acted on a recommendation from former councillor of the Sherwood Content division, Fernandez Smith, at the time of the incident, Small probably would not have been languishing between jails and prison, facing an uncertain future.
