By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
WHILE Parliamentarians debated the Correctional Services Bill 2013, Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday warned the government not to turn Her Majesty’s Prison into a luxury hotel.
Making a contribution to the Bill that promises to bring much needed reforms to the prison system, Mr Miller said he had little sympathy for hardened criminals serving sentences.
He urged the government to consider the well being of Bahamians who cannot protect themselves as the draft bill is amended.
“I would hope,” Mr Miller said, “that we aren’t trying to get Fox Hill Prison to a level of a small Atlantis over the Hill. It is a prison and it was built for those who would have broken the law. It was built for those who would have caused grievous harm for other members of society and that is the price that one must pay.
“Prison ain’t no hotel. If you commit a crime that’s how you get up there. Nobody owe you anything. If you were a good person, making a contribution to yourself and by extension the society at large you wouldn’t have been there.”
Mr Miller said that the government has an obligation to look after the interests of families who were affected by crimes committed against their loved ones. He wants prisoners convicted of murder to work and any money earned to be paid to the family members of the victims.
“They are waking up every morning taking showers and going to sleep. Those whom they have murdered could never wake up again. They go to jail for seven years and they come out. Have you ever seen a man walk out of the graveyard after seven years?
“My concern is about those who have suffered under the hands of those who are out there because if you make it too good, the fellas would be glad to go up there.”
Mr Miller later said he supported the Bill.
However, FNM MP Richard Lightbourn criticised the government for only making superficial changes to the prison system.
These include changing the name of the prison from HMP to the Bahamas Corrections Department and making provisions for the facility to be run by a Commissioner and deputy Commissioner rather than a Superintendent.
“If this is all they can come up with in 18 months, no wonder why we as a country are in the state we are in,” Mr Lightbourn said.
Comments
TalRussell 11 years, 2 months ago
Shouldn't Comrade "Pit bull" Leslie two feet be too busy out there collecting or turning off the lights of all them who have been delinquent to the tune millions of dollars of which he himself as the Chairman electricity of the peoples electricity has acknowledged as owing to BEC for many years?
AMEN!
banker 11 years, 2 months ago
Another illiterate in our Government. I guess that the PLP don't want educated people either in the government or in the general population.
lazybor 11 years, 2 months ago
exactly!
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countryfirst 11 years, 2 months ago
Can we please start hanging murderers, it sames as if this has been put on the back burner.
john33xyz 11 years, 2 months ago
That's right. The FNM were in for 5 years and did nothing - so they don't have room to talk about nuttin.
banker 11 years, 2 months ago
I work in wealth management for foreign high net worth individuals. We hired a receptionist who "spoked" Bahamian dummy dialect. Our clients couldn't understand her, and we had to let her go. Generally we have a new rule. If they can't speak like the person on the six o'clock news, we find a reason not to hire them. For God sakes, if we want to compete in the global willage, we een gern talk like a buncha low fences an' hicks.
John 11 years, 2 months ago
I hate to fly on Bahamasair and the stewardesses come on the intercom and talk like they just got off a plane from some back part of the English country, in the hills somewhere. Most of the passengers are Bahamian or Americans. So why, after all this time, fourty suptum years, Bahamasair stewardesses cannot be taught to speak naturally or at least with a little American accent? And not like a British bloke.
aloethree 11 years, 2 months ago
Buddy the stewardess on Bahamas air speak professional and that is the original proper Bahamian English this is not America so we dont need to speak like Americans.
banker 11 years, 2 months ago
My boss wouldn't say sh*t if he were tied to a chair and his mouth was full of it. And no, he doesn't slip into Bahamianese.
John 11 years, 2 months ago
If you see the squalid conditions some people live in, Fox Hill Prison is already hotel status to them. Some homes have no light, no running water, so no working toilets, leaking roofs, cramped and sometimes wet environment and, many times no food. And this is not in the shanty towns. Poverty can really be a cruel and savage creature and sometimes its grip on persons is unrelenting. Then crime becomes an alternative, so one must tread carefully when you decide to remodel Fox Hill. (wait lem'me check ma English before I post dis..)
John 11 years, 2 months ago
Did I hear the statistics right when they said only 25 persons are in Fox Hill who have been convicted of murder? Then that must mean that more persons are out on bail and on the streets charged for murder than those who are in Fox Hill convicted of murder..the figure has to be wrong.
john33xyz 11 years, 2 months ago
John - no, the situation is yes there are only a few persons there (more than 25 though) who are in for murder - and these get used as examples by ignorant people like Mr. Miller when they make examples in the press.
I agree with Mr. Miller that for convicted "hardened criminals" as he says, they should not live in a life of luxury while in prison.
However, MOST people in Fox Hill have NOT BEEN CONVICTED OF ANYTHING. They have been accused and are awaiting trial in the portion called "Remand". Remand is actually in worse condition than the hardened criminal area. For example, the water there is full of rust and salt. The water in the "hardened" and "convicted" area is quite clean.
Remand people have to wait months and years for trial (there was one guy from Japan who had to wait 14 years because prison officials said they couldn't find a translator). But most wait nearly a year and many wait up to five years to stand trial. Often they are released on "time served" because they spent more time in prison before trial than the Judge would give after they are found (or plead) guilty. Many plead guilty even though they are innocent because they know they don't want to wait another three years (for example) for another day in court and also so that they can drink clean water and stop having back pains from kidney infections.
Mr. Miller is living in a dream world if he thinks HMP is anywhere near luxury status or would be anytime in the future. The situation there is not fit for stocking farm animals, but yet we as a CHRISTIAN NATION hold in lockup there beings whom we claim are children of God.
I hope that God has no mercy on members of the churches for this atrocity when their day surely comes to stand before Him.
4renbahamian 11 years, 2 months ago
No matter what level of conviction they are still humans. It was that same nasty mentality that got us in problems with the detention center and you profess to be a church goer. We all know you have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to criminals. Dont let your personal feeling make you look like an ass. Check America prisons system, all type incarcerated but treated like humans.
The_Oracle 11 years, 2 months ago
Built for 400 MAX pop, currently holding 2500 Plus. I have seen the inside of Fox hill, 30 years ago and it was horrific then. (Passing through, not checked in) Perhaps the recent 8 million we just got from the Chinese could build a new decent (not luxurious) prison to handle our expected occupancy based on incarceration rate? Maybe, 10-15k?
banker 11 years, 2 months ago
Fix the economy and the prison population will go down by itself.
John 11 years, 2 months ago
@ John33xyz: Since you mention the church in the matter of the conditions of the prison, do you know that most of the bible was written from prisons? After they banished John to the Isle of Patmos, he wrote the Book of Revelation. And Paul did many of his writings from a prison cell. Or more correctly an underground dungeon, with rats and other creatures nibbling at his fingers and toes, so much that many of the pages of his transcript was full of blood stains. Paul said, 'they say he was in prison." But, according to Paul, he was in heaven because the Holy Spirit came and dwelled with him and thus he got the inspiration to write the testament. when he was free he would not find the time to sit and write, because he loved to preach. So God had to confine him and sit him down so that he could complete his work.
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