An inmate is busy constructing a piece of garment at the St Catherine District Prison recently. - File

Daraine Luton, STAR Writer

The new Jamaican prison, which is being part-funded by a grant from the United Kingdom, will be built on lands next to the Tamarind Farm Prison in St Catherine.

Peter Bunting, the national security minister, said the new prison, which will have a price tag of about $10 billion, will see toilet facilities in each cell.

The prison will house between 15,000 and 20,000 prisoners, up to 300 of whom may be persons sent back from Britain to serve their sentences here. The prison could be built in the next five years if Jamaica is able to find the estimated $6 billion which is required to make it a reality.

Bunting said that the grant being provided by the UK presents an opportunity for Jamaica to move forward on a significant human-rights and crime-fighting issue.

"If we had to finance it from our budget, then we would have to divert resources from our budget for either education, health or for vital infrastructure to build a new prison. Very few parliaments would want to make that decision, and that is why we have been discussing the need for a new prison to replace the one on Tower Street and the one in Spanish Town for over 20 years and we haven't reached any further," Bunting said.

Bunting said that Jamaica is in need of modern prisons to assist in the rehabilitation of offenders. One of the island's maximum-security prisons is 300 years old and the other is over 170 years.

Crowded

Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, formerly the General Penitentiary, was built in the 1840's to accommodate 650 male inmates, but has held over 1700 on occasions.

The St Catherine District Prison, the other maximum-security facility, was built in 1714 to accommodate 850 male inmates, but has held over 1300 on occasions.

"It will benefit the UK because they will save more from the annual maintenance of prisoners, but it will, in the main, benefit us because the thousands of persons that we have now serving their sentences in these degrading condition - these overcrowded, dilapidated facilities that we have now, the cells do not even have toilet facility. These are the persons who are going to benefit from this new prison if it happens," Bunting said.

Meanwhile, having donated £25 million to the building of the new prison in Jamaica, British Prime Minister David Cameron says it is time to "move on" from the horrid past of slavery.

Cameron, speaking at Gordon House on Wednesday, said it is time to "move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future".

"Slavery was and is abhorrent in all its forms. It has no place whatsoever in any civilised society, and Britain is proud to have eventually led the way in its abolition.

"That the Caribbean has emerged from the long shadow it cast is testament to the resilience and spirit of its people. I acknowledge that these wounds run very deep indeed. But I do hope that as friends who have gone through so much together since those darkest of times, we can move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future," Cameron said.

Cameron announced the UK would give £300 million to the Caribbean to pay for infrastructure development, making it the largest donor to the region.