A/HRC/16/52/Add.3
to 30 minutes to shower. There were seven people in his cell, but at times there were up to
nine. They could not use the toilets often enough, and their requests were often ignored.
24.
Hughlande Graham, aged 29, had spent the last 24 hours handcuffed to a bar, after
being arrested for allegedly robbery, and was waiting for an ID parade. He had wounded on
the right hand that reached his bone and was in urgent need of medical care, but had not
seen any doctor yet.
25.
Oswald Walters, aged 35, had worked for a truck company and slept on the
premises because it was too dangerous to travel back to his neighbourhood due to a gang
war. On 9 December 2009, he voluntarily went to Constant Spring Police Station to give a
testimony but was locked up instead. He also saw his employer give money to the police
two weeks later and was told by the police that he had allegedly stolen a truck. He was
remanded by the judge but had no lawyer or legal aid because he thought they were useless.
He suffered from a hernia and was operated on in the hospital during his detention at the
police station. Medication was prescribed to him but he had not received it yet. He had been
beaten on his ribs, abdomen, toes and knee when he resisted going into the cell. On another
occasion, he had been beaten with batons by two officers. There were five people in his
cell, and the police wanted to transfer him to Tavern Police Station due to the
overcrowding. However, he would have had to sleep on the floor, which was bad for his
asthma, and so he refused. When his family brought food, he could not see them or talk to
them, and the police would take some of it.
Horizon Adult and Juvenile Correctional Centre and Remand Centre
Visited on 14 February 2010
General information
26.
The Special Rapporteur was received by Superintendent Hector Smith. The Remand
Centre has a capacity of approximately 1,000 detainees. 609 persons were in custody at the
time of the visit, including 40 convicted prisoners, 566 remandees and 3 women, of which
two were minors.
27.
Although the conditions of detention were better than in police custody, they were
still quite harsh. The management seemed to be unable to deal with the detainees. Beatings
by prison guards and police were reported to be routine practice. There were no recreational
facilities, and the remand detainees and convicted prisoners spent most of the time in their
cells, i.e. on concrete bunks without mattresses, sheets or blankets. The cells were equipped
with a steel toilet and running water, which only worked occasionally. There was a general
feeling of arbitrariness from the side of the guards, and detainees complained generally that
the rules were not known to them, and that they often changed. Each building had 4
Security Posts (SP) per floor. Each SP had 6 cells of 8 detainees each.
Disturbances on 8 February 2010
28.
As a result of the unrest, 70 people had been injured; all of them had seen a doctor.
35 of them had been taken to the Kingston Public Hospital; 15 were admitted and 20 were
treated and sent back to Horizon. However, no officers had been hospitalized since none
were seriously injured. There was an ongoing police investigation. The Superintendent
informed the Special Rapporteur that nine posts had been damaged and that the damaged
section had not yet been repaired. There were two blocks for adults and one for females and
juveniles. According to Superintendant Smith, the unrest had started when 24 detainees,
who were outside their cells, released the other detainees in SP18. The Special Rapporteur
interviewed both correctional officers and detainees who were injured during the
disturbances, some of them in the Medical Wing of Horizon Remand Centre and others in
24
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