The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I WATCHED the protest demonstration by prison officers this week and could only shake my head with a sarcastic laugh. As a former prison inmate I ask you to consider my words very carefully. A vast amount of the crime issues that are plaguing this country are a direct result of the absolutely appalling, degrading and inhumane treatment of inmates over the years.

For ten years, I witnessed my fellow Bahamian men slapped, punched, kicked and cry like babies as they were stripped naked and beaten with belts and pipes for issues that could have been handled without force or violence. I saw officers laugh as men were intentionally placed in certain cells so they could be gang raped. I watched officers who were entrusted by the Bahamian people to help and reform inmates, simply laugh or turn a blind eye when these human rights violations and crimes against humanity were carried out against our own Bahamian men.

These same officers who protested have yet to once complain that in the year 2021, Bahamian men are still forced to deficate in slop buckets; given hard labour with not even minor pay; have not seen their loved ones for over one year or are locked away for more than 23 hours a day. Or that men imprisoned for petty crimes are forced to live next to serial rapists and murderers. They ignore that our men are being verbally, physically and emotionally broken every day by the same officers who were entrusted to help them. It is some of these same officers who are trafficking an immense amount of drugs and cell phones into the prison, but it is the inmates who are beaten and punished when found with the contraband. It is the prison system that is breading criminals.

It is both sad and ironic that the same people who are now crying for mercy, justice, fairness and favour are the very ones who show little or none to their own fellow Bahamian who for but a time are called “inmate”. Officers complain about the Minister, but not since Hon Cynthia Mother Pratt has a Minister made such a genuine effort to help inmates. Thank you for your efforts Minister Dames.

L TAYLOR

Nassau,

March 18, 2021.