Letter Concerning Prison Conditions

Dear Sir:

Late last year I was held on remand* at the Richmond Hill facility. To say I found the prison experience outrageously shocking would be an understatement.

In the several weeks in which my freedom was prohibited, it was brought to me with horrendous clarity, that the prison culture is steeped in warehousing. The rehabilitation characteristics of the prison are almost invisible.

I noted with great alarm that the hygienic conditions falls below acceptable standards - and I am not referring to the handling of food, which in my experience is being risky, and that is charitable.

The toilet conditions in both the main prison and what I refer to as the holding centre, in which I was kept makes some of the reported stories about toilets in the British publications "Prisoners Abroad" gloriously attractive.

Sir, I take note that you are the new man on this difficult watch. I am particularly grateful to you and your officers who had direct responsibility for me; as you know I had reported, in a public way, on the efforts made to secure a bed for me, thus denying me the cold-concrete sleeping-experience.

I know it is your overall responsibility; however you may be unaware that people on remand and others do have to sleep on the concrete floor for a period of time before the system kicks-in.

While I was on remand, for lack of a better word, I was smuggled into the main prison, I am sure that you're not aware that the roof does little to protect prisoners from the rain; however no one could have prepared me for the physical state of that building.

If the conditions ever become public, there would be a national outcry.

I also wish to draw your attention to a particular cell, which I understand is supposed to be a Medical Unit (Infirmary). I was told it contains forty prisoners - my count produced well over half that number, therefore I do not know the accuracy of my information; but I do know that overcrowding is a very serious and pressing issue at the Richmond Hill Prison.

My cell was not as crowded, however the two [cells] which formed a corridor to my cell, at any given time held over twenty (20) prisoners, many of whom slept on a mattress on the floor; and their toilet facility is what was playfully called a "Mobile Toilet". This was of course a plastic bucket.

I will save the graphics and expect you to do what is appropriate within your budget to alleviate this fifteenth-century experience; however I will recall a prisoner story explaining his brush with corporal punishment. He explained with great pride, how on one occasion, a Magistrate ordered that he receive several strokes.

He laid out the scene like a trained dramatist Doctor on hand, several prisoners, a number of young female trainee-officers, strapped or tied to a horse - the only thing between him and the rod is his skin.

He gave commentary like an accomplished narrator - he recalled the officer dishing-out the punishment, taking his time between strokes and like a fast-bowler, delivering his Yorker with great accuracy.

He recounted how the pain would intensify with each stroke; however I was dumb-founded when the young man with obvious excitement boasted that at the end of the flogging, he was proud to display the greatest of erection. The other prisoners urged him on - he made sure he moved slowly, giving the young female officers an eyeful of his erection.

The young man proudly boasted, it is better to be flogged than to be locked-up. The only thing that happened to him, he said, he urinated blood for a few days.

I will not comment on the fact that a teenager was held in my cell however I will direct your attention to an American prisoner, Mr. Carl Green, who joined the school programme as a teacher and was involved in teaching the teenager and others, basic educational skills.

I am not an authority, but in my view the school programme should be encouraged and promoted as a key component of the missing rehabilitation culture of the prison.

You would not be surprised to learn that I have been invited to share my prison experience with the FABIAN SOCIETY. I am sure you know the work of the Society - not only are they honest brokers in trying to improve prison conditions for inmates; but they have an enviable track record.

I was shown the new Mess-hall arrangement. I commend you for that and I hope the Ministry of Health would marshal its resources to bring the prison's sanitation and health standards up to accepted norms; however I am at a loss to understand why, in a prison where there is a litany of ills, a "Punishment-Block" has been constructed.

I am at a loss also to understand why prisoners are not allowed to use the phone under supervision, but have to do so through a social worker.

Can you imagine describing to a social worker the last time you had enjoyable sex with your wife and he or she having to explain that to your wife and the response comes through the social worker - I think that go-between is diabolical.

To my untrained trained eyes and observation alarm bells have been triggered, having learnt that only one social worker is employed in a community of over three hundred inmates.

Sir, I can bring to your attention something that may be vexatious to you, but is a behavioral pattern - some say lifestyle - that at the very least should be checked.

In prison it was reported to me at the door of my cell from the lips of a young prisoner, that an older prisoner did use him for sexual gratification in return for bail arrangements to be secured on the outside.

Several prisoners who are long-term inmates have spoken to me of gang rape, oral-sex for favors and protection; and there is a particular case, of which I have no documented evidence, but rely on non-malicious reporting of a long-term prisoner who is held for a most horrendous crime, shares his cell with what has been described to me as "two women".

It's not a matter of "Not tonight Josephine" but in fact which Josephine will he have. It's his reward as a well-known violent prisoner for not rocking the boat.

Sir, I repeat this and I do so with respect. It's been told to me that a number of named officers, one of whom is reported to be "in-love" with a prisoner, is encouraging this same sex practice within the prisons.

It is not my intention to make your work even more difficult than it must be, however it is my duty to bring these matters before you and to ventilate these issues aggressively with the hope of changing a "Culture of Ware-housing", into one of reform within the Richmond Hill prison.

Sir, I was disturbed to learn that there is at least one prisoner who has served his time but cannot be released into society because there is no place to go.

It was an eye-opener to learn that prisoners have no automatic right to Parole - and it seems to me that it is a great weakness within our prison system where no provision is made for rehabilitation.

I am aware that there is an appointed body called the "Mercy Commission"; however, I wish to point to the well-established practice Worldwide in societies with a history of civility.

Parole for prisoners is a well-established practice. Mercy is rooted in a Christian experience and can be selective in its dispensation.

Parole is a right in law; I was stunned to learn that under the CONVICTS LICENCE ACT, the laws of Grenada provide for prisoners to be released without completing their full sentence.

Given the weight of the report of the Prison Review Commission which was published back in 1997, the Policy-makers are well informed and aware of the activities, some would say, Richmond Hill is a cocktail mixed with unstable, explosive properties.

I hope that under your watch, some of the long-term prisoners who have rehabilitated themselves can be re-integrated into the society.

Can I be forgiven for ending on a slightly depressing note. I cannot find a word for the horror I felt on discovering the wide range of mentally ill people, who are held within the prison.

I have discovered that in October of 1997, a Government appointed Commission shared by Mrs. Franker Johnson Bernadine published the Prison Review Commission; which spoke to many, if not all of my concerns.

I hope your governance allows you to deal with these issues as a matter of grave urgency and the authority would give you the tools necessary to change the Richmond Hill Prison from a culture of warehousing to one of rehabilitation.

More compelling and bewildering, is to gain the understanding that since 1916, those who drafted the CONVICT ACT must have been convinced that prison should not be a place of warehousing.

The CONVICT LICENCE ACT is a forerunner of modern-day rehabilitation.

I urge you to use your watch to fashion a culture of rehabilitation - moving away from the penal culture with great haste.

Yours truly,

Stanley Charles