Scott

The proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) established between the British and the Jamaican Governments, where at least 40 persons serving prison time in the United Kingdom will be transferred to Jamaica, will not cost the country a significant amount of money.

"The cost would be minimal really because in effect, we will not be increasing our prison population as a result of this action," said Gilbert Scott, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security.

"The country requesting that the person be removed, that is the United Kingdom, asks us to take somebody from their prison, then they would have to pay the cost," Mr. Scott explained.

He also said the MoU proposes that only 40 persons categorised as having committed minor offences, and women whose children are living in Jamaica without proper arrangements for their supervision would be returned.

"The conditions are fairly limiting. We, the Jamaican Government, entered into the agreement for compassionate and family reasons. We recognise that there are a number of women whom we consider to have been victims of the organised drug trade," Scott said.

Conditions

While the prisoners to be transferred must have served the greater portion of their sentence in the U.K., anyone who has a remaining six months or less is eligible for consideration under the programme. "The other condition is that our agreement to it would be subjected to availability of space in our penal institutions here in Jamaica," Scott said.

The Government needs to pass relevant laws in Parliament before the prisoner agreement can take place; however, a timeline has not been given as to when these laws would be passed.

The Gleaner reported yesterday that Jamaica and Britain were in discussions on the transfer of more than 1,000 Jamaicans currently serving time in the U.K., after Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in the House of Commons that "we will sign agreements with those countries so that we can return prisoners from our cells as expeditiously as possible."