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Monday, October 9, 2006
In news from Jamaica, the Department of Correctional Services in that country has decided to segregate homosexual inmates from the heterosexual population. This policy of segregation is not new in Jamaicas penal institutions which also isolate inmates with communicable diseases and other vulnerable groups like the mentally ill from the general prison population. According to Major Richard Reese, head of the Department of Correctional Services, this forms part of an initiative aimed at reducing physical abuse and murders within Jamaicas penitentiaries. Acknowledging the fact that human rights groups might label the move as discrimination, Major Reese maintained that the number of murders stemming from an inmate's sexual orientation or from an unwelcome sexual advance was proof that such a programme was indeed warranted. Reeses insisted that the since the implementation of this programme, Jamaicans prisons have been a safer place for these groups. Monsignor Richard Albert, Episcopal Vicar in the parish of St. Catherine and chairman of the Crime Prevention Committee in St. Catherine, also expressed his support of the initiative and said he said he did not view the programme as encouraging or condoning homosexuality. I think they are trying to protect life and life is sacred. the Vicar said.
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