Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 8, 2020 (ZIZ News): Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) capacity is overwhelmed and as a result social distancing among residents cannot be practiced.
That is according to Commissioner of Corrections at Her Majesty’s Prison, Terrence James who was giving a presentation at Wednesday’s NEOC Daily Covid-19 Briefing at NEMA headquarters.
“No, we cannot do any social distancing in the prison in terms of the inmates. Our prison is such a small prison it has been built way back in 1840… and it was constructed to house just 60 inmates as of 8’oclock this morning we have at Her Majesty’s Prison 184 inmates, 22 of which are on the island of Nevis and 162 at Her Majesty’s Prison in Basseterre.”
He said that however, the management team has been proactive with implementing a number of measures including restricting visits from the public to safeguard the health of prison personnel and residents.
The Commissioner added that the residents and staff were also educated about the virus itself as well as sanitization methods to avoid contamination in the prison and a thermal thermometer was used at the entrance of the prison to check the temperature of staff when they enter.
He explained that he participated in a recent video conference with heads of prisons in the Caribbean and an early release of residents was decided to alleviate the overcrowding issue in the prison.
“It was a consensus by all of the heads of the prisons that one of the things we can do immediately is to release inmates because the prisons are overcrowded and so we had a consensus by all heads that we can have an early release of inmates who are non-violent and inmates who are closing in on the ending of their sentence.”
The Commissioner said that this exercise will have to be a process which includes a recommended list of the residents who fit the requirement will have to be formulated and they will have to be taken back to court before the release is granted.
He also announced that as at present none of the prisons in the English speaking territories have reported any Covid-19 cases.