Government Cuts Labor by Using Prisoners

With Jamaica (like many other countries) facing such hardtimes, cutbacks are hard. Now, they are going to be using more free labor.

"With what is happening the Government is looking to cut cost in every way it can and this is one way we will have to use the resources of the inmates to reduce the cost to the public sector," Junior Security Minister Senator Arthur Williams told the Observer yesterday.

Acting Commissioner of Corrections June Spence-Jarrett told the Observer that for last year 18 projects were carried out across the island using inmates at a cost of $2 million to the Government. She said it would cost more than $40 million if the work was given to outside contractors.

I think though the outside contractors would be more reliable. If you "pay" a man for a good days work, I mean pay him well, then he will come back and work harder for you the next day. If you "beat" a man and tell him he "has to work," you will get work, but without the quality behind it. That is just my opinion. There are so many laborers in Jamaica who can do the job, but if the government is cutting cost by using inmates, then won't these laborers soon end up as inmates as well? Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures. I feel that these folks will be soon feel tempted to join criminal elements just to make ends me for themselves and family.

Source: Jamaican Observer

Deportees

Now here is the kicker, the term, "Deportees" can be referring to imported cars from Asian countries or "criminals returning to the island." What comes to mind when I hear deportees though is the latter. You come back to the island with only the clothes on your back, loss of dignity and many times leaving your family behind. You handcuff to the airplane seat, with your paperwork in a manila envelope. That is all you carry. The majority of deportees though that come back to the island (contrary to opinion) are not all criminals. Their are many who have committed only immigration violations.

Sadly, the ones who do commit crimes abroad come back and lend their skills to the local gangs (bad bwoy dem). In the 70's and even some years of the 80's you did not hear about drive-bys in Jamaican communities. This is one thing that was brought back by the deportees.
A United States government commissioned study in 2004 done by the University of West Indies Professor of Criminology, Bernard Headley said the that over 5,000 Jamaicans sent back from the United States between 1997 and 2003, very few were guilty of murder.

Jamaica's Ministry of National Security though (at the time) Secretary Gilbert Scott argued that a large number of criminal deportees were indeed involved in serious crimes, focusing on drug related activities. The Head of Operation Kingfish, Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds said, "Deportees have always been involved in criminal activity, however, the level of involvement cannot be qualified."

Whatever the dispute in the reports, many Jamaicans know that crime has increased in Jamaica and they are hoping this new government helps in alleviating that. Sending back criminals to a country that is struggling to get back on its feet is a crime itself (that is my opinion). Wouldn't be so simple that if someone bothers you, you simply ship them over to someone else. Fact is that the deportees, many of them, when to make life better for themselves and their families, but were never properly educated about life outside of their native land.

Sometimes trading one prison, for another.