No timeline to repair condemned Old Harbour jail – DSP Manderson

The facility, which carries a maximum capacity of 18 persons, was closed about three months ago because of health and other reasons deemed unsafe for human inhabitation.

As a result persons charged in relation to serious crimes committed in the sub-division are taken to the St Catherine South Police Division headquarters where they are held in detention.

“Currently I’m not aware of a set timeline, it’s mainly being used as a holding area,” DSP Manderson told Old Harbour News in an interview. “We don’t keep persons there beyond 24 hours, we take them to Portmore.”

A lack of maintenance over the years has caused the infrastructure of the lock-up to be compromised. One of the cells has been abandoned for some time now, while poor ventilation is also a factor.

Manderson, who took charge of the sub-division approximately three months ago, said of the facility: “It’s not conducive for prisoners; it’s not conducive to have a lock-up there.

“Overlooking the lock-up is a major plaza, almost every single building including the police station, where there is a court house upstairs, is overlooking the lock-up.

“I know of some planned work by the ministry to be done but have no idea as to when it will happen. We do need a new space but until then we make do with what we have.”

The Ministry of National Security has been allocated $93 billion for 2019/20 financial year. Twenty billion dollars of that amount has been earmarked for capital projects, which include the repairing of several police stations across the island.

The security ministry is yet to give a timeline as to the commencement of the infrastructural rehabilitation across police stations, many of which are in deplorable state.

“We must give the police decent police stations to work in. We cannot have a young man who sits at a desk, and there is a three-legged chair, or the police station has to be locked down because the sewage is leaking from the back or there is a risk of the workers getting leptospirosis because the station is rat-infested.

“We cannot demand the performance of our officers at the levels we want or hold them accountable unless we do better,” said security minister Dr Horace Chang, addressing a speakers’ meeting of the Lions Club of Kingston in February of this year.