‘Lack of transparency’ in prison operations

A “lack of transparency” in the day-to-day operations of Her Majesty’s Prison Service in the Cayman Islands is hampering its effectiveness and leading to the belief that mistreatment inside the various detention facilities is going unaddressed.  

Those conclusions are drawn in a government-commissioned report compiled by the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs and the Canadian Institute of Public Administration after a weeks-long review that consulted dozens of individuals in and around Cayman’s criminal justice community.  

“A number of stakeholders provided examples of concern around excessive use of force, inappropriate use of strip searches, arbitrary decision-making, administration of medicine to mentally ill inmates and an ineffective complaint process,” the report found.  

There were overriding concerns expressed in the review that all those factors contributed to a lack of confidence in prison management. Officials from the Canadian public administration group could not “speak to the accuracy” of those concerns, but found a number of individuals they interviewed said the same.  

“[This] means that, at the very least, action needs to be taken to increase public confidence in the administration of the facility,” the report concluded.  

One mechanism the prisons system has to increase confidence and accountability, reviewers noted, is the Prisons Inspection Board. Board members perform routine checks at Northward adult men’s prison, Fairbanks women’s prison and Eagle House Juvenile Detention Centre. However, the report questioned the effectiveness of those inspections, since board members are now required to give two days’ advance notice of their arrival and are typically escorted by one or more prison officers.  

“This leads to a perception … [that] the board’s inspection is not of the institution operating as it does on a daily basis, but an inspection of the institution operating as the prison wants the board to think it operates,” the report read.  

Reviewers recommended that any requirements for prior notice or escorts during prison board inspections of any Cayman Islands prison facility should be immediately removed, save special protections needed in Northward’s high security block.  

The report also recommended the government create an independent prisoner complaint process, establishing an agency outside of government to act on the complaint. Right now, prisoner complaints are handed directly to prison officers.  

The system led, in at least one recent case, to claims of a retaliatory strip search made against three female inmates at Fairbanks Prison after one of them sent a complaint letter which was opened and read by a prison guard. The letter complained about the guards’ laziness and alleged failure to provide medication to inmates in certain instances.  

Canadian officials, along with the local government portfolio, acknowledged that some prisoner complaints would be “vexatious” or “devoid of substance”. However, they concluded that – if the complaints have some merit – the current procedure for handling them is simply not fair and could result in fear of reprisals.  

“A well-managed prison should have no concern over the receipt of prisoner complaints – they are part of the institutional setting,” the report stated.  

Following the strip search incident at Fairbanks, government officials revised search procedures making them more specific, particularly with regard to how female inmates should be treated. Changes to the prisoner complaints process were also made. 

However, the report recommendations went a bit further, advocating the establishment of a ‘complaints commissioner’ to whom the Prisons Inspection Board could refer complaints it was unable to resolve. Prisoner complaints should be sent to that agency without “review or interference from government or prison officials”.