'Please check on our lock-up too'

Western Bureau:

With the lock-up at the Freeport Police Station, in Montego Bay, St James, closed because of health concerns, councillors in the Hanover Municipal Corporation want the Hanover Health Department to carry out checks to determine the health status of the lock-up at the parish's police headquarters in Lucea.

The request was made by Councillor Devon Brown, of the Hopewell Division, following the tabling of a report by Dr Marcia Graham, the acting medical officer of health (MOH) for Hanover, at last Thursday's monthly meeting of that corporation. In her report, details of the activities dealt with by the department during the month of December 2016 were outlined.

According to Councillor Brown, he had received information that the condition at the lock-up, which is the only adult male lock-up in the parish, is less than suitable. He said that a disaster was waiting to happen. Simultaneously, Councillor for the Lucea Division Easton Edwards stated his request for unannounced visits to be made to the supermarkets throughout the town of Lucea in particular, and the parish in general.

To back up his request, Councillor Edwards claimed that he had received reports from a school in the parish that rice bought within the town had an unfamiliar taste and the students were refusing to eat it. He also said he has had a personal experience of chicken meat bought tasting tainted.

The acting MOH gave an undertaking that the necessary checks would be done. She said that visits would be made in short order.