Jamaica Slammed With 16 Lawsuits Over Prisoners' Maltreatment

In two months, the Jamaican government has been slammed by at least 16 lawsuits over country's fractured prison system which has even been accused of cases of torture and illegal detention. 

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Rodje Malcolm, executive director of the human-rights group, Jamaicans for Justice, told the Jamaica Gleaner, a Jamaica daily, "In the last two months alone, JFJ has initiated 16 court actions on behalf of victims of police abuse, whose lives have been destroyed and they have nowhere else to turn for assistance." 

"These court actions include lawsuits seeking redress for regular, law-abiding Jamaicans who were illegally detained, physically brutalized, tortured or otherwise harmed by rogue police officers," Malcolm added. 

ES (one of the persons who suffered abuse) reported grave human violations while at the prison. 

"ES had objected to the police entering his house without a search warrant. He was allegedly beaten, then arrested for 'illegal possession of stolen items'. He was allegedly beaten, then arrested for 'illegal possession of stolen items,'" the Jamaica Gleaner reported.

"In every instance, we have seen, court proceedings or investigations revealed that the victims were not criminals, but were just poor Jamaicans who could not do anything to save themselves from being targeted," Malcolm said, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. 

"Importantly, this group of victims includes one police officer, who himself was illegally detained and abused by his colleagues. Unsurprisingly, many of our other clients who are police officers used to hate JFJ and other human-rights groups until their rights were abused and they needed JFJ's helps to protect them."