‘It’s Not A Gift’

SECURITY Minister Peter Bunting says Britain’s £25 mil­lion towards the con­struc­tion of a new prison in Jamaica is a con­di­tion­al offer.

“… It’s not a gift. They have been very clear that this sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion towards the build­ing of the new prison is con­di­tion­al upon us pass­ing leg­is­la­tion, suc­cess­ful­ly nego­ti­at­ing a pris­on­er trans­fer agree­ment, and then mak­ing it oper­a­tional,” Bunting told reporters at yes­ter­day’s Jamaica House press briefing.

However, despite the rag­ing debate, it could take up to a year before the coun­try knows if Britain will give Jamaica the promised £25 mil­lion to build the new penal facil­i­ty, Bunting indi­cat­ed yesterday.

He said all that time may be need­ed for Parliament to fin­ish its con­sul­ta­tions and decide whether or not to allow Britain to send up to 300 Jamaican con­victs back here to fin­ish their sen­tences. The Government, how­ev­er, is expect­ed to use its par­lia­men­tary major­i­ty to push the mat­ter through the House.

“It may or may not occur. The key ele­ment is whether Parliament will approve the frame­work leg­is­la­tion. We know it is a sen­si­tive issue for the soci­ety, so we would want to allow as much par­tic­i­pa­tion as pos­si­ble, so that would take a few months,” said the secu­ri­ty minister.

If the Government does not agree to this one-way pris­on­er exchange pro­gramme Britain could with­draw its £$25-mil­lion offer to help build a new prison, which the Jamaican Government insists that the coun­try des­per­ate­ly needs.

The min­is­ter told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that a spe­cial select com­mit­tee is to be set up to receive sub­mis­sions on this issue from tech­ni­cal experts and all inter­est­ed par­ties, includ­ing civ­il soci­ety and the dias­po­ra. He said the result­ing report could either rec­om­mend aban­don­ing the pro­pos­al due to the strong sen­ti­ments around the issue, or to pro­ceed with leg­is­la­tion and the nego­ti­a­tion on the pris­on­er trans­fer agreement.

Although main­tain­ing that the announce­ment made by British Prime Minister David Cameron last week had giv­en the impres­sion that an agree­ment was in place, Bunting said the arrange­ment could ben­e­fit both sides.

“We are not going to sign some­thing that at the end of the day would rep­re­sent a net trans­fer of finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty from the UK to Jamaica. There can be a win-win sit­u­a­tion in this because it costs about £6,000 to keep a pris­on­er in a Jamaican facil­i­ty ver­sus £25,000 in a UK facil­i­ty, so there is suf­fi­cient scope for there to be a win-win if and when we get to nego­ti­at­ing the pris­on­er trans­fer agree­ment itself,” he said.
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