JAILHOUSE CLAMPDOWN

WESTERN BUREAU:

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Wayne Josephs, the commanding officer for Westmoreland, has sent a strong message to police personnel under his command, and inmates in the parish’s lockups, that he will neither tolerate corruption from cops, nor uprisings in his jail cells.

Josephs’ declaration comes in response to the recent melee between detainees at the Bethel Town Police Station and police personnel who attempted to retrieve a large supply of contraband, including knives, ice picks and other weapons, from the cells on Wednesday afternoon.

The commanding officer said the first team of police personnel who went in to undertake searches at the lockup was met with resistance from the detainees who barricaded themselves in and poured urine and other liquid on them.

“They (the detainees) brandished knives, ice picks and other weapons, daring them to come inside and threatening them. Reinforcement was sought from Savanna-la-Mar police, but the police were still attacked by the prisoners, resulting in five officers receiving injuries, with at least two of them stabbed and others receiving blunt force trauma injuries.”

Some of the detainees also complained of receiving injuries, with a relative of one of them accusing the police of abuse. However, Josephs stated that only a few of the detainees received visible minor injuries, and some complained of feeling pain. Medical attention was sought for both inmates and the police personnel.

Josephs has made it clear he will not tolerate this behaviour in the jails in the parish.

“These are persons who are charged for serious crimes, ranging from murders, to shootings and robberies. These are not babies that we’re dealing with. And if we cannot control these persons inside the lockups, then how are we going to control them when they are out on the streets where they have access to high-powered weapons and other firearms?” he asked.

Josephs is standing behind his team 100 per cent, and he has commended them for being brave in carrying out their jobs and risking their lives to retrieve the items in the cells, while ensuring law and order is maintained.

Noting that he was concerned about how the contraband got inside the lockup, he said it was a question others must also be asking.

“I believe that these things must have come in by deliberate action of police officers or inaction. Either it has been taken in there or, because of their tardiness in not searching these prisoners properly when they come in from court when they go out there, or when food is brought into the lockups,” said the commanding officer.

He is sending a warning to police personnel who may be guilty of corrupting the system.

“If there are police officers doing this, I will not stop until they find themselves also behind bars with these prisoners,” he argued.

Going forward, Josephs said the intention is to rotate the staff and sensitise the supervisors to be more vigilant. The prisoners, he said, have to be properly searched on their return from court.

“When relatives bring food they hide the weapons in the food,” he stated.

This is the second such breach of dangerous contraband making its way into the island’s jails. In January, a prisoner at the Ocho Rios Police Station was burnt several degrees by his cellmates who were seen in a video preparing the cocktail.

The men in the video were smoking ganja and holding containers with a flammable liquid.

Errol Chattoo, the Independent Commission of Investigations’ (INDECOM) director of complaints for the western region, said his organisation had commenced a probe into the incident. He too is concerned about the ease with which contraband is making its way into the island’s lockups.

“This incident brings into sharp focus the issue of banned substances finding their way into our various lockups across Jamaica. It is something we have to seriously look into,” he stated.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com