A/HRC/16/52/Add.3
night, she was not traumatized, as she kept herself active when she felt depressed.
However, she added that some of the girls who had been in the Armadale fire also
misbehaved at Diamond Crest.
106. C. A., aged16, had been sentenced to 18 months, and had already completed nine.
The day of the fire, she was on the top bunk when she felt the tear gas. She tried to get out
of the window, but a girl was stuck due to her weight. There were 23 girls at Armadale, and
only two windows from where they could get out. She was the last one to exit. Although the
fire did not get to her skin, she could feel it tingling; a major section of her body was burnt.
107. R.W., aged 17, was sentenced by a court on 20 July 2009 to one year imprisonment
for the possession of marijuana and an offensive weapon. At Armadale Juvenile
Correctional Centre for Girls, she had been ordered to wash the dishes once but she refused.
She walked out of the kitchen and was told by the warders to go to her dorm. When she did
not follow the order, a male officer bent her arm backwards and pushed her. She pushed
him back and six other officers came and bent her arm again, which had been hurt. One of
the female officers, Ms. White, said that she would kill her. She was put into an office and
had to wait there for 30 minutes. She was given a pill that made her sleepy and was taken
back to her dorm. The officers often cursed her.
108. S.T., aged 17, had been initially detained in Armadale since February 2009. She was
sentenced to one year imprisonment for the possession of marijuana. Because the
conditions in Armadale were very bad, some of the girls wanted to run away. There were
about 20 girls in the “office dorm”, which had three bunk beds. The girls managed to dig
the window grill out of the wall but when they tried to escape at night, they were caught by
the staff. The police was called and the girls were forced back into the dorm. The girls were
singing, screaming and mocking the police. When she smelled the teargas she jumped out
of the window; she was the second girl to get out of the dorm. The teargas came first, and
then the fire. She thought that maybe one of the girls had lit a mattress in order to distract
attention from their escape. She was traumatized from the events.
Alligator Pond Police Station, Manchester, St Elizabeth
Visited on 17 February 2010
General information
109. The Special Rapporteur was received by Inspector Clyde Rumsay, Constable Sekou
Smith and Sergeant Donovan Boothe. At the time of the visit, four male detainees were
held at the police station.
110. The police station was small and displayed more humane conditions than the others
the Special Rapporteur had seen in Jamaica. There were only four detainees held at the
police station, who had been transferred the day prior from Mandeville Police Station,
allegedly because of the visit of the Special Rapporteur. Conditions of detention in
Mandeville were described by the detainees as appalling. In comparison, Alligator Pond
was cleaner and the cell doors were open during the day. Detainees could go to the toilet
and shower whenever they wanted in the very clean facilities. However, there was a
problem with cockroaches and mosquitoes and the detainees complained that the light in
the corridor was always on.
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