The Tribune

AN EXASPERATED Commissioner of Police has given the authorities a choice: “Keep criminals behind bars” or his officers will continue to “pick dead bodies up off the streets”.

As the Commissioner has said on many occasions, he and his men do their best. The police investigate, make the arrests and deliver the offenders to the courts. At least they can say that they have done their job. “But what have you done?” the Commissioner has asked the authorities.

Although this government was elected on the assurance that its members had the solution to reduce — if not eliminate— crime, the Commissioner’s simple question is one they cannot answer.

“We are working like crazy to keep a lid on this terrible thing but as long as our young sons walk around with guns in their hands with the propensity to kill - they have done it before they will do it again - and we do nothing to keep them behind bars, we will continue to pick up dead bodies,” the Commissioner warned.

“That is going to offend a lot of people but something must be done to get those people out of communities and where they belong until they have their day in court,” said Commissioner Ellison Greenslade.

“It cannot be right for a man to walk around with an illegal firearm to be arrested and a few days later he is waving at the same officers that arrested him as if nothing has happened. There is something wrong with that equation. I do not want to get caught up in numbers or whether the murder count is going to be high or low, the reality is one dead body in the Bahamas is one dead body too many. I am begging for support and help.

“If we arrest people that have committed the most egregious crimes in this country and they have re-offended more than once but are still walking around, something is wrong with that. Something needs to be done because arresting them is not solving the problem. We cannot arrest ourselves out of this situation.”

It is true that the country cannot arrest itself out of a criminal situation. Nor can the judiciary continue to send accused persons to an over crowded prison while they await their day in court. However, in the final analysis an accused is safer behind bars while he awaits trial than if he is allowed his freedom. Many of those murdered wear ankle bracelets. Justice today, instead of being dispensed by the courts, is being carried out on the streets. Many of the killings are revenge killings – personal quarrels being settled by gunfire. It is so bad today that to release an accused on bail is tantamount to a death sentence.

The Bahamas has the highest incarceration rate in the Caribbean. The last official prison count was in 2012 when HM Prison had more than 1,600 inmates. There are probably far more today than three years ago, and although HM Prison’s new name — Bahamas Department of Correctional Services – makes it sound more civilised, its problems remain the same – if not even worse.

In 2013, National Security Minister Bernard Nottage characterised the extent of overcrowding at the prison as “unacceptable”, attributing the overcrowding to the large number of petty criminals incarcerated and the backlog in processing at the remand centre.

In June of that year, the prison superintendent reported the maximum-security wing of the prison held nearly 900 inmates, which was twice the number of inmates it was built to house when constructed by authorities in 1953.

Authorities reported that as many as six inmates were confined to cells intended for one or two prisoners. Others were housed in poorly ventilated and poorly lit cells that lacked regular running water.

Several years ago, we suggested in this column that government should take a piece of Crown land on which would be built a holding centre for those on remand. Those accused of murder, rape or armed robbery, of course, would go to the main prison. However, the others accused of lesser offences would be sent to the remand centre, where they would pay for their keep by the sweat of their brow. They would till the soil and the produce would be sold.

Others could be taught carpentry where they could make various pieces of furniture, again for sale.

Several years ago, the late “Bing” Pinder, then Superintendent of Prisons, worked with the late Sir Etienne Dupuch’s Santa Claus committee to produce toys for children at Christmas. They were lovely toys, some with moving parts, all painted and beautifully finished. When these men left prison, they left with useful skills.

We recall as a child following Sir Etienne around the Boys Industrial School as Captain Holland, a lean, stern-faced Englishman who always carried a swagger stick, showed off the efforts of his “boys.” These youngsters fed themselves from the large garden they had planted. He kept his boys busy — they took pride in their work, and he in them.

We recall him telling our father what good citizens he was turning out. This is more than can be said today. What is being let lose on society today are hardened criminals — harder than when they went in. These are the men who return to crime — the only skill that they have honed to a fine art.

Government talks of its “swift justice”, but after becoming the government, the gun court, which was at least relieving criminals of their weapons, was closed. With a closed court, the cases are piling up. Why was the court closed? Was it because it was an FNM idea, or was it thought that cases would move faster if added to the already over crowded magistrate’s courts?

Instead of finger-pointing and desperately looking around for someone to blame for the growing crime – and fighting among themselves as to who will be their leader at the end of their November convention – they should concentrate on devising a scheme to keep their promise to the people and keep the gun-toting criminals out our communities.

A secure remand centre would be the best way to impose a curfew that would keep them out of the communities and guns out of their hands.