Nottage: Prison should be last resort for petty criminals

Tue, Jun 19th 2012, 10:27 AM

Insisting that prison should be a place of last resort for people who commit petty crimes, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage said yesterday only five classes of criminals ought to be incarcerated at Her Majesty's Prisons (HMP).
"At the risk of again being wrongly accused of going soft on criminals, I would suggest that we need evidence led data to guide our policies in respect to incarceration," said Nottage as he addressed the Caribbean Association of Corrections Conference at SuperClubs Breezes."And the data seems clear that whether convicted or simply charged, prison should be reserved almost exclusively for five categories of persons: violent dangerous offenders; drugs, arms and human traffickers; multiple recidivists; child molesters and corruption offenders.
"Persons charged or convicted of non-violent petty crimes should as far as is possible be confined to prison only as a measure of last resort."
Nottage noted that the overcrowding at HMP is largely due to the large number of petty criminals who are incarcerated.
"For far too long the prison has been used as a sanction of first resort for those accused or convicted of relatively minor offenses," he said.
"In many of our jurisdictions it is still felt that to lock them up and throw away the key is the antidote to crime and violence.
"While tight-fisted policies might be a popular posture, the evidence is clear that only when prisons are used as a first resort for hardened, dangerous, violent offenders and the place of last resort for petty minor offenders, society tends to be safer and remediation amongst wrongdoers seems more assured.
"Indeed, the evidence is clear that for dangerous, hardened criminals punishment works mostly when it is swift, sure and severe. For petty offenders, treatment and rehabilitation seem to offer the best prospects, not incarceration."
According to prison officials, the facility's daily population was around 1,300 inmates up to October 2011. However, it is now around 1,550, representing a near 18 percent increase.
During a tour of the Fox Hill facility three weeks ago, Nottage said the conditions are "unacceptable" particularly in the maximum security wing.
Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming said the maximum security wing was holding nearly twice the number of inmates it was built to house. The facility, which was designed to hold up to 450 inmates, is now "bloated" with close to 900 prisoners.
According to Her Majesty's Prison 2010 Report, the vast majority of inmates who are sentenced were convicted of petty crimes.
Of the 749 people who were sentenced in 2010, 71 percent were sentenced to serve a year or less in prison. Another 12 percent or 93 inmates were sentenced to more than two years, according to the latest report.
Only 13 people (less than two percent of the people admitted to prison in 2010) were sentenced to 10 years or more, said the report.

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