THIS IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE EDITORIAL PUBLISHED ONE YEAR AGO OCTOBER 23, 2003
IVAN NETTLEFORD, mentally ill, was rescued from the bowels of the prison system in March 2001 after spending 29 years for breaking a window in Clarendon in 1972. When at age 77 he was awarded $9 million in compensation, human rights officials said the number of mentally ill prisoners incarcerated may well be about 500.
One more such lost prisoner has now walked free after spending 24 years in jail. Like Mr Nettleford in 2001, the case of Errol Campbell was discovered by representatives of the Human Rights Council. He had been in custody in the General Penitentiary after being charged in 1979 with shooting with intent at a policeman. Declared unfit to plead he was simply locked away.
In our report on his rescue in yesterday's edition, a court official explained that plans have now been put in place to prevent a recurrence. Similar assurances were given in the Nettleford case. Indeed Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe issued directives that monthly reports on the welfare of mentally ill persons remanded in custody should be presented to the Resident Magistrates; and a procedural manual for dealing with such cases was drafted.
The country should be told whether the plans to prevent a recurrence of these scandalous abuses of human rights are working. The Public Defender earlier this year had called for a complete list of mentally ill detainees. Has this been supplied? And if not, why not?
The public service rendered by the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights in these matters is laudable. But the prime responsibility rests with the State. The rights forfeited by those who break the law do not extend to the extreme of wasting their lives away because of official neglect.
