The Government recently appointed a Prison Reform Commission to undertake a review of Her Majesty’s Prison. The objective of the Commission presumably is to come up with recommendations to transform the prison into an institution that is measurably better than it is today. The word reform means to make better by removing abuses or malpractice and to make corrections or improvement of some social or personal error. Reform suggests or may even require enlightenment and modernization. The difficulty with reform in the political and social environment is that it demands that the institution reduce its control over its clientele (in the case of prisons those would be the inmates) or it must share more of its authority with the clientele. Therein often lies the death of reform.
I am not convinced that the government is serious about prison reform. Two government Ministers who happen to be females and who publicly profess to be born again Christians, have called for the reintroduction of the cat-o-nine tails as a form of corporal punishment for persons convicted for rape. This form of punishment I suppose will be reserved exclusively for men. How does the government reconcile prison reform with such medieval form of punishment? Any form of corporal punishment is incompatible with the notion of reform. You cannot campaign for prison reform while crusading for the use of penal flogging and torture. This is why this PLP administration under Perry Christie has become such a paradox, it sings in too many languages and its melody is not harmonized. How are citizens expected to take the government serious on the issue of prison reform when the Minister who will be responsible for implementing the reforms is calling for the re-introduction of state imposed brutality.
The hypocrisy and sanctimony in this Bahamian society is troubling. Too many leaders speak the language of Christian evangelicalism but do not have compassion or forgiveness in their hearts. The knee-jerk call for corporal and capital punishment seem always to accompany and follow the periodic rise in certain violent crimes. The more we dehumanize and brutalize young men who engage in violent crimes the more we reap the harvest of brutality. Men who rape women must be punished but they must also be helped. When we read of women who abandon their newborn babies or who drown their children, we do not flog them; we show sympathy and mercy toward them. We recognize and acknowledge that there are profound underlying pathos that drive a young woman to commit such heinous acts. A rapist should be treated no differently. Rather than research, explore and expose that deep-rooted societal malaise, we take the easy and politically correct route and institute draconian and uncivilized measures. Yet we wonder why our society is so violent.
Why do young men rape our mothers and daughters, and why would they molest a five-year-old girl or an eighty-year-old great grandmother? These questions must not be addressed through speculation or anecdotal opinions. We must do the hard scientific study and research. We do not have to re-invent the wheel but we must ensure that the Bahamian social experience is understood and factored into adopted programmes and restorative proposals. We cannot honestly address the issue of crime and punishment until we undertake the necessary homework. There is no doubt that the male in the society needs special attention. We must not attempt any quick fixes, as the problems are deep-rooted and pervasive. The problems have been long in coming and we will have to grow out of them as we have grown into them.
I expected a kinder, gentler civil society in the start of this twenty-first century. Sadly, I have witnessed an uncaring and vengeful community. I was shocked to hear the President of the Bahamas Christian Council in his first public appearance after his election pronounce that we should hang em high. I was extremely disappointed to hear two mothers who are cabinet ministers call for our brothers to be whipped if convicted of rape. I see a nation without compassion and without love and I see a Bahamian people unforgiving and unenlightened.
We have to evolve a society that is intolerant of all crimes not only violent crime, that is sensitive to victims of crime and one that is fair and humane to the criminal. None of this will work unless and until we have a government that has the will to look beyond the next general election, and that is bold enough to provide the resources required to address the social drift and decay. Prison reform is an essential component in the fight against criminality and recidivism but we have to be serious about it. Let us stop all this talk about cat-o-nine-tails and brutality and start the process toward restoring humanity and dignity in our people.
Yours etc.,
Philip Munroe
A Letter to the Editor
