In response to the brutal Cherry Tree Lane massacre, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a $25-million reward fund aimed at securing arrests and charges against those responsible. The fund includes specific allocations for information leading to the arrest of gunmen, facilitators, and gang members involved in the attack. Holness emphasised the Government's commitment to dismantling the criminal networks behind the violence, urging citizens to come forward with credible information to help bring the perpetrators to justice.

Prison politics 

Holness wary of cost but admits modern facility would help cut criminal communications from inmates

One suspect in Clarendon massacre killed, 5 arrested

Jamaica Gleaner/15 Aug 2024/Kimone Francis/ Senior Staff Reporter

A MODERN maximum-se- curity facility that could ensure the curtailing of crime plans that originate from behind bars may not be an im- mediate priority for the Andrew Holness administration, which contends that a new location may spur political blowback.

Jamaica has 10 prisons that house more than 3,700 inmates, a matter that has caught the eye of the United States (US) Department of State, but Holness, Jamaica’s prime minister, said budgetary constraints dictate where spending takes place.

The matter was raised during a media briefing on Wednesday following a disclosure by Acting Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey that friends turned rivals, both overseas and locally, contacted prisoners to facilitate Sunday’s massacre of eight people and the injuring of at least 10 in Cherry Tree Lane, Four Paths in Clarendon.

Holness said many discussions have been had on the possibility of constructing a new facility with draft plans on the table.

“The issue, of course, is the budgetary constraints. There are many demands on the budget. Building a new prison would certainly draw quite a bit of political attention as to whether or not that is wise use of funds when we need new hospitals, good schools, roads and all the other issues,” said Holness.

He said his Government is minded in how it makes fiscal allocations but noted that, in the consciousness of the public, “that clearly, there needs to be a more modern prison facility”.

He said, with that, the police can “effectively stem or cut off the communication and the contact of prisoners”.

US REPORT

The prime minister said the plans that have begun are to focus on how the security forces can build a high-security facility where criminal masterminds can be effectively separated.

In the US State Department country 2023 report for Jamaica, it noted that the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre was signifi- cantly overcrowded.

“At times, cells in the maxi- mum-security facility at Tower Street held three times the intended capacity. Cells were dark

and dirty, with poor bathroom and toilet facilities and limited ventilation,” stated the report which primarily focused on human rights.

In 2015, Holness, as opposition leader, demanded that the Portia Simpson Miller administration immediately abandon a deal that was being pursued with Britain to build a new prison. He said the deal was not in the interest of Jamaica.

Meanwhile, Bailey, who oversees the crime portfolio, said violent incidents in Clarendon have international roots that incorporate local players, some of who are incarcerated.

“These individuals who once were friends in Jamaica are falling out in the United States over illegally obtained gains, leading to each taking homicidal contracts to incite fear and terror.

“Criminal actors in prison were contacted to facilitate these contracts through their criminal networks, resulting in the senseless bloodshed here in Jamaica,” Bailey said.

RELATED INCIDENTS

He said the police’s investigation of Sunday’s gun attack has made significant progress, revealing connections to at least six previous violent incidents in Clarendon.

He said the incidents include a quadruple murder in Havanna Heights in 2021, an April 21 murder, and a subsequent shooting and arson that were committed on April 25 in West Park in the parish.

The other incidents include a murder that was committed on April 29 in Cherry Tree Lane, a murder that was committed on May 11 along Foga Road in May Pen, and a murder that was committed on May 15 in York Town.

Bailey said the police are mindful of the reprisals likely to take place and are using all resources available to mitigate any threat of reprisals.

A state of emergency has since been declared for Clarendon.

At the same time, Bailey said five people have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s deadly shooting, one of whom surrendered to the police.

The security forces later announced that another of the men suspected of being a shooter in the Clarendon incident was killed yesterday afternoon during a targeted operation by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Fugitive Apprehension Team and the Clarendon Operational Support Unit, in Osbourne Store in the parish.

The police said the dead man, identified as Steve Smith and otherwise known as ‘Thicka’ or ‘Fly Brain’, is suspected of having been involved in numerous contract related killings and other serious and illicit activities in Clarendon and other parishes. He had for some time been wanted for for murder by the May Pen police, and was a person of interest in several other murder investigations.

$25-MILLION REWARD FUND

News of Smith’s death came hours after Holness announced a $25-million fund to reward persons who give credible information that leads to additional arrests and charges of criminals behind the attack.

The prime minister said that, with the fund, the government and security forces are creating an avenue for citizens to provide information that will help destroy the remaining 185 gangs in Jamaica.

For information leading to the arrest and charge of any suspect involved in Sunday’s massacre, $6 million has been allocated. Persons may receive up to $1 million each for the information.

Persons who provide information leading to the arrest and charge of facilitators of the gun attack will share $5 million, and may receive up to $1.5 million each.

“We are particularly interested in the facilitators and the organisers. Those who provided the weapons or gave access and ammunition, access to motor vehicles, organised, made the telephone calls, made the connections,” said Holness.

Rewards will also be given from a $4-million pool of funds for intelligence leading to the seizure of firearms that were used in the killings and any information on the network involved in the supplying of the weapons.

Holness said $5 million is earmarked for the supplying of information and i ntelligence resulting in the securing of evidence against the gangs involved in the attack.

A further $5 million is available for information that leads to the arrest and charge of anyone harbouring criminal gangs and their associates. Persons may receive up to $800,000 each.

The announcement comes even as Crime Stop Jamaica, the cash-for-tips programme run by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, registered a marginal decline in the number of tips in 2023, compared to 2022.

Last year, Crime Stop Jamaica received 1,134 tips, a 1.2 per cent decline compared with 2022, according to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, which the Planning Institute of Jamaica prepares.

According to the report, the programme paid out $10.2 million in rewards, $9.1 million of which was for guns.

Tips are to be reported to: Crime Stop: 311 Police emergency: 119 National Investigation Bureau tip line: 811 MOCA tip line: 888-662-2847 Jamaica Defence Force tip line: 837-8888

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