Dear Editor,
Prime Minister David Cameron has visited Jamaica and he has now returned home. He has announced a 'goodies package'. This money is to be shared among former British Caribbean colonies. Jamaica, the largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean, is set to get to the lion's share.
Truth be told, Jamaica's two major penal institutions are centuries old. They are not conducive to rehabilitation as they were never built by the British Government with that in mind. Simply put, they were built to provide patients for the Bellevue Hospital or bodies for the grave. Prison was supposed to be a dreaded place.
Why is Jamaica kicking up a storm over Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal to build a modern prison? The Government has never committed budgetary allocation for the construction of a modern prison, and if they had done so the funds have been shifted to do other things.
The problem I have with the British PM is his statement that Caribbean people should put slavery behind them. If he had gone to Israel and told the Jewish people to forget the Holocaust he would be declared persona non grata.
Jamaica needs a modern prison where prisoners can be rehabilitated so that upon their release they can take their rightful place in the society. This means they must be given the tools that will allow them to successfully reintegrate into society.
What Jamaica needs to do is to sit with the British Government to work out an agreement and time frame for the construction of this needed correctional facility where inmates can be rehabilitated. The British Government must commit to the expenses to be incurred in the maintenance of this new prison where it is expected that Jamaicans now incarcerated in British prisons will finish their sentences in Jamaica. The British Government is doing for Jamaica what Jamaica cannot afford to do and has failed to do.
Jamaica cannot afford to build a public morgue, although the perimeter fence was built. Perhaps we could ask the British Government for assistance in this area. They left us one in 1962 at Baker Street in Kingston 12. We built one on Darling Street, next door to the abattoir, which they also built and left us with.
Further, the British Government must pay reparation to the people of the Caribbean for their enslavement and forced labour on the sugar plantation when sugar was king. The former slave owners received 25 per cent of the English budget to compensate them for their loss; however, the former slaves received nothing.
Joseph M Cornwall Sr, JP
Managing Director/CEO
House of Tranquillity Funeral Home Ltd
tranquillityfh@yahoo.com
Cameron wrong on slavery, but accept prison
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Prime Minister David Cameron has visited Jamaica and he has now returned home. He has announced a 'goodies package'. This money is to be shared among former British Caribbean colonies. Jamaica, the largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean, is set to get to the lion's share.
Truth be told, Jamaica's two major penal institutions are centuries old. They are not conducive to rehabilitation as they were never built by the British Government with that in mind. Simply put, they were built to provide patients for the Bellevue Hospital or bodies for the grave. Prison was supposed to be a dreaded place.
Why is Jamaica kicking up a storm over Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal to build a modern prison? The Government has never committed budgetary allocation for the construction of a modern prison, and if they had done so the funds have been shifted to do other things.
The problem I have with the British PM is his statement that Caribbean people should put slavery behind them. If he had gone to Israel and told the Jewish people to forget the Holocaust he would be declared persona non grata.
Jamaica needs a modern prison where prisoners can be rehabilitated so that upon their release they can take their rightful place in the society. This means they must be given the tools that will allow them to successfully reintegrate into society.
What Jamaica needs to do is to sit with the British Government to work out an agreement and time frame for the construction of this needed correctional facility where inmates can be rehabilitated. The British Government must commit to the expenses to be incurred in the maintenance of this new prison where it is expected that Jamaicans now incarcerated in British prisons will finish their sentences in Jamaica. The British Government is doing for Jamaica what Jamaica cannot afford to do and has failed to do.
Jamaica cannot afford to build a public morgue, although the perimeter fence was built. Perhaps we could ask the British Government for assistance in this area. They left us one in 1962 at Baker Street in Kingston 12. We built one on Darling Street, next door to the abattoir, which they also built and left us with.
Further, the British Government must pay reparation to the people of the Caribbean for their enslavement and forced labour on the sugar plantation when sugar was king. The former slave owners received 25 per cent of the English budget to compensate them for their loss; however, the former slaves received nothing.
Joseph M Cornwall Sr, JP
Managing Director/CEO
House of Tranquillity Funeral Home Ltd
tranquillityfh@yahoo.com
Cameron wrong on slavery, but accept prison
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