VZCZCXYZ0006
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKG #0260/01 0561607
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 251605Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0760
INFO EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 0197
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS KINGSTON 000260 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
WHA FOR DAS REYNOSO 
WHA/CAR FOR (V.DEPIRRO, W.SMITH, J.MACK-WILSON) 
L/LEI (CHOLLAND) (AKLUESNER) 
INR/IAA (GBOHIGAN) 
JUSTICE FOR OIA (PPETTY) 
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW 
INR/RES (RWARNER) 
CENTRAL AMERICAN CARIBBEAN BASIN COLLECTIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM HURI ECON OFDP OVIP PGOV SCUL SNAR SOCI KCOR
KCRM, UN, UNGA, UNHRC-1, JM, XL 
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR CONDEMNS PRISON CONDITIONS, 
FINDS LITTLE EVIDENCE OF SYSTEMIC TORTURE 
 
Summary: 
 
------------- 
 
 
 
¶1. (U) Jamaica's detention facilities are "inhumane" and "reflect a 
complete disrespect for human dignity," according to Manfred Nowak, 
the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other 
Cruel and Inhuman Treatment.  Nowak, who had been invited by the 
Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to assess conditions in the nation's 
jails, prisons, and remand centers, also noted that lengthy 
pre-trial detentions are too common while juvenile offenders are 
too often housed in adult facilities.  Although he found no 
evidence of officially-sanctioned torture, Nowak described a system 
in which corporal punishment against prisoners was common.  End 
Summary. 
 
Prebriefings for GOJ and Diplomatic Community 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) Manfred Nowak, an Austrian human rights lawyer and 
professor at the University of Vienna operating under a mandate 
from the UN Secretary General, visited Jamaica with a team from the 
UN's High Commission for Human Rights from February 12-19 on the 
invitation of the GOJ.  In a preliminary briefing to 
representatives of the diplomatic community prior to his February 
19 press conference in Kingston, Nowak told those in attendance 
that he had debriefed representatives of the GOJ on his findings 
that morning, including representatives of the Ministry of National 
Security (MNS), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade 
(MFAFT), and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).  The UN investigative 
body had been invited to Jamaica on a fact-finding mission to 
investigate allegations of torture, and had received the full 
cooperation of the GOJ.  Nowak and his colleagues had requested and 
received complete freedom of movement in visiting facilities, to 
which they had arrived unannounced, and had been allowed to speak 
with whomever they wished.  Once their preliminary report is 
completed, it will be submitted to the GOJ for review and comment 
then submitted to the UN High Commission for Human Rights in 
October 2010. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Nowak noted that he had found no evidence of widespread or 
state-sanctioned torture - the intentional delivery of pain for a 
specific purpose - in Jamaica's detention facilities. 
Nevertheless, Nowak condemned the general level and atmosphere of 
violence he had observed in the facilities he'd visited, as well as 
the violent methods employed by law enforcement and wardens against 
prisoners and detainees.  Having visited a number of penal 
institutions, including facilities for men, women, and juveniles, 
Nowak described the conditions he'd observed as reflecting "a 
complete disrespect for the human dignity of persons in conflict 
with the law."  Nowak's report paints a picture of a penal system 
characterized by repression, violence, corporal punishment, dank 
and dehumanizing conditions, and in which drugs, cell phones, 
weapons, and women were easily available to inmates for a price. 
Perhaps most disturbingly, Nowak noted, was that in many cases 
minor offenders were housed in the same facilities as hardened 
adult criminals. 
 
"Degrading Conditions" in Police Lockups 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Under Jamaican Qw, suspects arrested by the Jamaica 
Constabulary Force (JCF) on suspicion of having committed a crime 
are to be held for no more than 24 to 48 hours before seeing a 
judge, at which point they should be released on bail pending 
trial, transferred to a remand center to await trial, or released 
for lack of evidence.  In practice, however, many spend months or 
 
 
 
even years in such facilities due to administrative backlogs and an 
overburdened judiciary.  In the most egregious cases, suspects have 
been known to have become "lost in the system" and to spend as many 
as five years in lock-ups or remand centers awaiting trial (Note: 
In one case, a 64 year old charged with a 2007 domestic dispute 
with his son had spent two years in a Spanish Town lock-up awaiting 
trial; the clerk of courts had advised that judicial proceedings 
were on hold pending the receipt of a medical certificate from the 
Kingston Public Hospital.  End Note).   Nowak described conditions 
at such lock-ups as "degrading," with as many as three prisoners 
housed in cells designed for one, poor ventilation, inadequate 
lighting, insect and rodent infestations, and few or no toilet 
facilities.  The JCF personnel in charge of these lock-ups were not 
trained or equipped to maintain long-term facilities. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Conditions at remand centers and prisons were somewhat 
better, Nowak noted, with more space and better lighting, although 
they were still generally inadequate.  Food and water quality was 
poor, and Nowak described high levels of frustration among the 
prisoners and remanded suspects with whom he met over what they 
perceived as "arbitrary rules" imposed by wardens.  In most cases, 
Nowak found that detainees had no knowledge of or trust in any 
complaints mechanisms available to them. 
 
Allegations of Brutality in Horizon Uprising 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) At Kingston's Horizon Remand Centre, where inmates rioted 
on February 9, 2010, over water shortages, JCF and Jamaica Defence 
Force (JDF) personnel called in were accused of using excessive 
force in quelling the disturbances.  Afterwards, the UN team 
collected forensic evidence and interviewed those injured in the 
riots.  Derek Pounder, a British physician and forensic specialist 
on Nowak's team, reported that several Horizon inmates displayed 
"defensive-type" injuries, typically serious bruising or fracturing 
to the mid-forearms, suggesting that they'd been beaten while 
defenseless and attempting to protect their heads and torsos. 
Several inmates with whom the UN team met alleged that the Horizon 
wardens had used metal pipes to beat prisoners during the uprising, 
indicating "the use of force [that] can only be described as 
excessive."  Nowak attributed the uprising to frustrations arising 
from the harsh conditions and humiliations inflicted on inmates by 
wardens, and suggested that the Horizon wardens, rather than 
attempting to restore order, had instead used the uprising as an 
opportunity to take out their frustrations and to inflict 
punishment on troublesome inmates.  Afterwards, representatives of 
the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) were denied permission to 
enter the facility to meet with inmates, and were only subsequently 
allowed to do so when Prime Minister (PM) Bruce Golding ordered the 
center's administration to comply.  (NOTE: Some media reports 
suggested that the uprisings were also fueled by new security 
measures to curtail smuggling of contraband into the facility.  End 
Note). 
 
Prisons Overcrowded and Outdated 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) The UN team also visited Kingston's Tower Street Prison, 
built in the 19th century to house 650 prisoners but now housing as 
many as 1700.  Nowak described Tower Street as not conducive to the 
correctional and rehabilitation objectives of modern prison 
facilities, and not suitable for retrofitting.  In Tower Street as 
well as other prisons, garrison "dons" operate criminal enterprises 
with impunity and often exercise more power than the wardens 
themselves.  Wardens and guards also may be drawn into such 
criminal networks, serving as conduits for drugs, cell phones, 
weapons, ganja, and even women to inmates.  Nevertheless, despite 
overcrowding and an atmosphere of violence, corruption, and 
arbitrariness, Nowak noted that the prison's management was "doing 
 
 
their best" under difficult circumstances. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Dr. Pounder pointed out that 147 of Tower Street's 1600 
inmates suffered from mental illnesses because there were no secure 
psychiatric facilities in which to house and treat them.  Instead, 
a part-time psychiatrist visits just three times a week.  With such 
inadequate treatment programs in the harrowing conditions 
described, it is virtually certain that mentally-ill inmates will 
see their conditions worsen during their incarcerations. 
 
Better Conditions in Women's Detention Facilities 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) The UN team found conditions at lock-ups, remand centers, 
and prisons for women to be generally better than those for men. 
Nowak described the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre, a 
former British fort constructed in the 1740s that now houses as 
many as 280 female inmates, as a much cleaner and more humane 
institution, although the failure to separate juveniles from adult 
prisoners during the day remains problematic.  These findings, 
Nowak noted, demonstrated that improving Jamaica's detention 
facilities was possible so long as there was the political will to 
do so. 
 
Mixed Findings in Juvenile Centers 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) In May 2009, a fire broke out at the overcrowded Armadale 
Juvenile Correctional Centre when police threw a tear gas canister 
into a locked dormitory to quell an inmate uprising.  Seven girls 
died and dozens were injured as a result of the fire, and Armadale 
was subsequently closed.  Nevertheless, Nowak described Armadale's 
replacement, Diamond Crest near Manchester, as a "best practices" 
model with good rehabilitation facilities.  (NOTE: Nowak had not 
yet visited Armadale, but noted that the use of tear gas to control 
children had been clearly inappropriate.  The GOJ appointed a 
Commission of Enquiry to investigate the Armadale fire, and its 
report is due in the coming days.  Portions of the report have been 
leaked to the media and the inquiry already has resulted in the 
resignation of Alison Anderson-McLean, the embattled head of the 
Child Development Agency.  End Note). 
 
¶11. (SBU) However, Nowak painted a much different picture in regard 
to juvenile facilities for boys.  At the St. Andrew Juvenile Centre 
for Boys in Stony Hill, near Kingston, Nowak described a 
"disastrous" and "disturbing" system of repression and corporal 
punishment in which the boys, most of whom were between the ages of 
12 and 17, were "never allowed to leave the buildings, depriving 
them of any recreational activities in the open air."  Under 
Jamaican law, "uncontrollable" children may be remanded to 
correctional facilities for up to three years, although Nowak noted 
that the GOJ's legal definition of "uncontrollable" was weak. 
 
Recommendations 
 
------------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) Nowak's team made a number of recommendations to the GOJ, 
many of which he felt had been positively received, and encouraged 
the international donor community to support the GOJ in its reform 
efforts.  Among these recommendations were that : 
 
a.       Suspects should be held in police custody for no more than 
the statutory 24-48 hours before being released on bail or sent to 
remand centers; 
 
b.      The GOJ should build and utilize more remand centers, as 
well as administer them under an authority separate from the JCF or 
the Department of Corrections; 
 
c.       No juveniles should be housed in detention centers for 
 
 
adults; 
 
d.      Establishment of an independent authority to investigate 
allegations of JCF misconduct; 
 
e.      Reforms in correctional and judicial systems. 
 
Analysis 
 
----------------------------- 
 
13 (SBU) Although not unexpected, the UN Special Rapporteur's 
critiques of Jamaica's detention centers were harsh and quite 
damning.  Nowak attributed the failure to find evidence of torture 
to two related factors: the professionalism of the Jamaican 
judicial system, which he contends would refuse to accept evidence 
and confessions collected through torture;  and the propensity for 
extrajudicial killings by the JCF, by which a police officer with 
insufficient evidence to charge a suspect with a crime might be 
more inclined to murder said suspect than to elicit evidence 
through torture that might then be disallowed in court. 
Nevertheless, Nowak recommended that the GOJ criminalize the 
practice under domestic law and ratify the UN Convention Against 
Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Nowak also urged the GOJ and society as a whole to take 
steps to de-escalate the "cycle of violence" that both drives, and 
is exacerbated by, Jamaica's pervasive atmosphere of violence. 
With one of the highest murder rates in the world, escalating 
levels of violent crime, and rising incidences of extrajudicial 
police killings, violence is ever present in Jamaica's 
neighborhoods, news media, and popular culture.  In response, a 
frustrated public demands harsher responses and reprisals from law 
enforcement and government.  Parliamentary proposals to institute 
flogging and to impose the death penalty are popular with voters 
(NOTE: Jamaica's death penalty, last imposed in 1988, has proven 
difficult to implement given a Privy Council ruling that limited 
prisoners to no more than five years on death row.  Given the slow 
pace of the Jamaican judicial system, death row inmates can 
routinely "time out" through well-timed appeals.  End Note),  while 
Minister of National Security Dwight Nelson drew choruses of 
support in 2009 for his denunciations of human rights groups and 
public support of JCF officers accused of extrajudicial killings 
(NOTE: Under pressure from the Prime Minister and the diplomatic 
community, Nelson subsequently apologized for his comments.  Reftel 
¶A.  End Note).  However, Nowak maintains that such rhetoric and 
such policies only result in further escalation of the violence 
that has proven so devastating to Jamaican society.  End Analysis. 
Parnell