UK to build £25m Jamaican Prison
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Despite the controversy surrounding David Cameron’s trip to Jamaica, with some of the country’s MPs and campaigners calling for Britain to pay compensation for its role in the slave trade, it looks as though some good may come of it. The news comes after the Prime Minister announced a deal for the UK to spend £25 million on building a prison to house Jamaican prisoners currently detained in Britain.
More than 600 Jamaican citizens are in British prisons but cannot be deported due to the poor conditions of the prisons of their home country, which the government fears could lead to a successful human rights law appeal if the prisoners were sent back under present circumstances. This leaves Jamaica the third most common nationality of foreign offenders in UK detention, but the new deal (which will see an estimated 300 prisoners with more than 18 months still to serve in custody sent back to Jamaica) is designed to address this problem.
The last several years have seen a great deal of controversy concerning the failure of the government to deport foreign national offenders (FNOs). Then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke lost his job in 2006 after it was revealed that 1,000 FNOs had been released without being considered for deportation. For several months, a compulsory transfer deal for prisoners between Britain and Jamaica has been in a deadlock of negotiations, but the announcement of funding is expected to resolve this.
The £25 million contributed by the UK will represent around 40% of the cost of the prison, which would hold around 1,500 people. Some campaign groups, though, such as the Howard League for Penal Reform, have accused Mr Cameron of allocating the money as “the wrong use of foreign aid”, though the PM has stated that the agreement would mean “Jamaican criminals are sent back home to serve their sentences, saving the British taxpayer millions of pounds but still ensuring justice is done”.
Mr Cameron, who is the first British PM to visit the island in 14 years, is also expected to announce £300 million worth of aid for infrastructure such as roads, bridges and ports throughout the entire Caribbean.