Acting Prison Superintendent Kenrick Jean Jacques told the court that although the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dominica has caused much panic, they were still able to undertake a great deal of work on the prison facility.
He made his comments at the closing of the Criminal Session of the high court when he delivered what is termed the “jail delivery.”
“The population as of December 16, 2020, at the prison is 222 inmates comprising 220 males and two females,” Jean Jacques told the court. He explained that 33 came from the high court, 91 from the magistrate’s court, and 98 persons on remand.
“Among the prison population we have one juvenile a 16-year-old who is serving a two-year jail sentence; there are 16 foreign nationals made up of four (4) Venezuelan, seven (7) Haitians; one (1) Trinidadian, one (1) St. Lucian, one (1) Romanian and two (2) from St. Martin,” he said.
Jean Jacques told the court, that in their quest to keep the COVID virus out of the prison; they embarked on “retrofitting a section of the prison to create a quarantine unit.”
“All new inmates received are placed in that section for at least fourteen (14) days prior to them joining the rest of the population. That was a challenge, but the staff and inmates saw this as the way to go to protect themselves from the coronavirus,” he stated.
“All visits had to and remains suspended from March 2020. However, relatives and friends continue to drop off necessities for their loved ones. We are working very hard to have visits resumed as soon as possible, hopefully, very early next year,” the Prison Boss told the court.
He said that the Prison piggery expansion is “well on the way with the construction of a new 42×50 pig-pen with a nursery.” Also, work on the multi-purpose building continues and is about 95% complete.
According to Jean Jacques, the Prison Service like most institutions has its own unique challenges including staff shortages, security concerns, review of prison Act and Rules/regulations, staff capacity development, prison self-sufficiency, and improvement of physical plant/environment.
He also revealed that the “buffer zone project” which started in 2017 is currently “seventy-five (75%) complete using the labour of prisoners.”
“Prison officers with construction skills and inmates are actively involved in the construction and the outcome has produced a very high level of skilled work. The ministry is in the process of awarding a contract to a construction firm to undertake the construction of the other twenty-five (25%) of the project which is deemed to be more difficult due to the risk involved in that section of the buffer, it was decided to contract out the work,” he said.
Eleven (11) inmates were taking classes in preparation for writing CXC math and social studies, however; all classes had to be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are hoping that classes can resume soon,” he said.