For the past two decades or more, crime arguably has been the most pressing problem that the Government of The Bahamas has had to grapple with, and the recent spate of rapes and robberies have underscored the fact that this scourge on our society still holds that distinction.
It is problem for which there obviously are no easy solutions, for there is no question that our law enforcement officials have been doing a remarkable job tracking down criminals and bringing them to justice. I do not have the statistics at my fingertips, but newspaper reports clearly indicate that the police have an excellent record of solving crimes and arresting those persons believed to be responsible.
Thatﾴs due in no small measure to the leadership of Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson, who has been very impressive in that office since he became the countryﾴs top policeman two years ago. Much of his success, to be sure, can be attributed to his visionary decision early in his administration to delegate responsibility for certain key departments in the Force to a cadre of highly intelligent young officers.
Included among them are Assistant Commissioner Ellison Greenslade, officer in charge of Grand Bahama and the Northern Bahamas; Assistant Commissioner Reginald Ferguson, who has responsibility for serious crimes; and Superintendent Marvin Dames, head of the Criminal Defence Unit.
But despite the apparent success the police have been having apprehending law-breakers, some criminals continue to ply their trade seemingly without concern that their unlawful pursuits would more likely than not result in a stint at Her Majestyﾴs Prison in Fox Hill, a squalid den of misery that Amnesty International has ranked as one of the worst prisons in the world.
The need to improve the inhumane environs of Fox Hill Prison has long been a cause championed by civil libertarians, and just several weeks ago Prime Minister Perry Christie and his government announced the appointment of an 18-member Prison Reform Commission to undertake a comprehensive study of the prison.
Under the chairmanship of criminologist Dr. Elliston Rahming, the committee has been given four months to conduct the study and submit its recommendations to the government aimed at, among other things, reducing the recidivism rate and transforming the prison into an institution that places emphasis on rehabilitation.
In announcing the appointment of the commission, Prime Minister Christie said the over-reaching thrusts of his governmentﾴs anti-crime programme are to reduce the overall crime rate through innovative programmes and assorted prevention strategies and to significantly lower the rate of recidivism.
“We therefore have two choices,” the Prime Minister said. “We can continue to warehouse the same persons who are in and out of prison or we can take the time to engage in a comprehensive, systematic study of the criminal, socio-economic and educational backgrounds of these inmates and thereupon evaluate what in-prison and post-prison intervention strategies are necessary to lift their self-esteem, empower them with problem-solving, job-readiness and coping skills.”
Such noble objectives certainly deserve universal support, but while we are turning Fox Hill Prison into the kind of institution that would give a young man who made a mistake in his youthful life a second chance, a clear and unambiguous message must be sent to those unsalvageable menaces to society who are in training to become hardened criminals that the punishment will match the crime.
Indeed, serious consideration should be given to including flogging with the cat oﾴ nine tails as part of the punishment for persons convicted of vicious crimes, as suggested last week by a number of callers to a radio talk show, in response to the spate of rapes that have taken place in New Providence recently.
I can almost hear the protestations from human rights activists labelling my suggestions as cruel and barbaric, but their protestations notwithstanding, we have got to restore law and order in our communities by whatever means necessary.
True, public flogging is particularly distasteful to Black people, and it is indeed painful for me to seriously advocate it as a possible deterrent to crime, in that it harkens back to the days of slavery when flogging was the favourite mode of punishment used by the slave masters. But the prospect of being sent to prison apparently is not a deterrent to those who make their living in the criminal world, so consideration must be given to a more drastic form of punishment as a means of discouraging young men from making a wrong turn at the crossroads of their youthful lives and embarking on a life of crime.
The prospect of being flogged in public in the presence of that special young lady in his life whom he sought to impress with expensive gifts bought with the booty from his criminal activities quite possibly would make a young man think twice about committing a crime. To be sure, a prescribed number of strokes with the cat oﾴ nine tails certainly should be the punishment for a person convicted of rape, an abominable crime for which no punishment can be too severe, and these strokes should be administered before he enters prison and again shortly before he is released.
In the process of resorting to such draconian measures to combat crime, however, we have got to be careful that no civil liberties are trampled upon or that no measures are undertaken which could endanger the democratic freedoms that we enjoy in this country. But being forced to live like prisoners in our own homes, as is the prevailing situation in many respects in New Providence , suggests to me that our democratic freedoms already are endangered. When a family cannot feel safe in their own home, then any action that falls short of trampling on our democratic freedoms should be tried.
Meanwhile, we will have to wait and see whether or not the report thatﾴs eventually submitted by the Prison Reform Commission appointed by Prime Minister Christie will suffer the same fate as similar reports on crime compiled in the past and be placed on some shelf in some government office to gather dust.
If the Government is serious about prison reform and combating crime, it will move swiftly to put in place the realistic recommendations suggested by the commission to address this critical problem.
By Oswald Brown, From “Oswald Brown Writes”
The Bahama Journal
