Renewed call made for forensic facility to house mentally ill inmates
Published:Monday | February 3, 2025 | 5:08 PMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Donna-Michelle Royer-Powe, director of medical services at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), is reiterating calls for the Government to build a dedicated forensic psychiatric facility to house mentally ill inmates.
Royer-Powe on Thursday pointed to troubling examples of medical staff rotating rooms to attend to patients and psychiatrists treating patients on benches due to the lack of infrastructure.
“You cannot have a mentally ill man locked up in a cell and restricted and then taken out for the two or three hours, put back in like the regular inmate,” she stated.
Royer-Powe was speaking during the launch of Stand Up For Jamaica’s policy paper: Breaking Barriers: An Inclusive Approach to Mental Health. The policy paper highlights the urgent need for reform in Jamaica’s correctional facilities, which it argues are violating fundamental human rights.
The policy paper calls for the relocation of mentally ill detainees to appropriate psychiatric facilities, enhanced oversight, and greater resource allocation to ensure the protection of human dignity.
Thursday’s event also marked the launch of a national campaign aimed at addressing systemic issues within the country’s prisons, including inhumane conditions, inadequate legal representation, and failure to meet constitutional and legal obligations in handling mentally disordered individuals who are unfit to plead.
Highlighting the poor infrastructure of Jamaica’s prisons, Royer-Powe said she had to suspend medical services recently because of bed bug infestation.
“They were spraying for the chink [bug] … because the floors are old and all the spray came down through the flooring into the medical (room) because the floor is old and has cracks,” she said.
She noted that the DCS’s ability to provide medical care has been significantly improved after an Independent Commission of Investigations report in 2020 on 81-year-old Noel Chambers, who was mentally ill and died after waiting 40 years for trial.
Since that occurrence, she said the DCS has implemented 60 medical posts which include nine posts for psychiatrists, 11 posts for psychologists, and 11 posts for medical officers.
However, she lamented the lack of proper infrastructure which hampers the staff from effectively carrying out their jobs.
She noted that approximately 200 mentally ill persons are currently incarcerated.
“What you are doing is frustrating the whole staff,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Carla Gullotta, executive director of Stand Up For Jamaica, contends that persons who are not fit to plead should be diverted from correctional centres.
The DCS opened a medical centre and infirmary (MCI) at the Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre in St Catherine in 2021 but, while lauding the initiative, the Stand Up For Jamaica head said she believed it was insufficient to address the needs.
“It won’t be the solution forever,” she said, adding that the DCS is also cognisant that the issue is growing.
She asserted that efforts should be focused on prevention, assessment, rehabilitation and reintegration.
“Where is the network working around them to ensure that their rehabilitation is monitored by professional persons, and medical staff?” she quizzed. Where are the institutions so that those which are not able to go back, because they might be dangerous to themselves, they might be dangerous to others, where do they go?”
In the meantime, King’s Counsel and former INDECOM head, Terrence Williams, lamented the lethargic attitude of the court system when addressing matters dealing with mentally ill individuals.
“There must be a regular system of review by the courts to appreciate whether the person is now fit to plead … . We hope that the court will fashion a remedy to alleviate this problem at an institution level. The powerless when dealing with the Government can only turn to the courts,” he said.