Philipsburg:--- St. Maarten's Minister of Justice Roland Duncan said his Ministry is seeking to lease prison cells overseas since the island's prison facility does not have enough space to house all its criminals. Minister Duncan made the announcement on Wednesday during the Council of Ministers press briefing. The Minister also disclosed that he received a letter from Curacao's Minister of Justice informing him that Curacao does not have space to house prisoners from St. Maarten. He said St. Maarten currently has 12 prisoners in Curacao and while they will not be sent back here, Curacao will not be accepting any more new prisoners from St. Maarten.
Minister Duncan said while he is seeking to lease prison cells from Holland, this, he said will be costly for St. Maarten because prisoners cannot be transferred to Holland on regular commercial flights. "We might have to charter flights to take prisoners to Holland if we manage to secure some cells on lease."
This discussion he said will take place when the Attorney General visits Holland. He said St. Maarten will not be asking Holland for any favors or assistance, instead they are seeking to rent prison space just as Belgium did with Holland.
Minister Duncan also explained that he is busy seeking space from other countries but he said he will not divulge information on which countries he is negotiating with until an arrangement is had.
The Minister also announced that he is busy negotiating with some private persons on leasing another property for a new prison. Minister Duncan said he is preparing for reactions that he might get from the public regarding the location. However, he made clear that St. Maarten is producing its criminals and St. Maarten would have to deal with those criminals by housing them somewhere in the community.
The Justice Minister said currently the Pointe Blanche Prison does not have enough space to house its criminals and the lack of space is hampering the judicial process. He said the court is very observant about the prison conditions since some of the current cells are not adequate.
Minister Duncan said that at least 15 cells at the Pointe Blanche Prison have to be repaired to meet international standards. Besides that discussions are underway to either expand the Pointe Blanche Prison or build a new facility elsewhere. Duncan also reacted to an article published in one of the daily newspapers regarding the Dutch reaction with regards to financial assistance to St. Maarten. He said he knew from the inception that the Dutch was not willing to assist St. Maarten financially. He said recently he received a letter from the Dutch that indicated they were willing to help St. Maarten find human resources but they have no money to assist with technical assistance.
The Minister agreed that St. Maarten's Prison facility is overcrowded but this he said did not happen when the island attained its country status.
"The overcrowding at Pointe Blanche has been going on for a while now. Of course the problem is one that country St. Maarten would have to deal with but the country Netherlands Antilles failed to do what they had to do. I am considering a plan for a turn-key prison system which will allow Pointe Blanche Prison to house 315 prisoners." The Minister said if a new facility is added to the existing prison facility in Pointe Blanche then that would cost St. Maarten between 60 to 80 million guilders, with a lease cost of 67 million per year for the next 30 years.
Youths in Jail.
The Minister also made clear that the prison population is made up of mostly youths. He said while he read somewhere that prevention might be helpful, he is not sure if training the youths differently would make a difference.
The Minister said that if people continue to buy stolen items from thieves then the island will not be able to get rid of its criminals. He said selling stolen items is a lucrative business but if the people in society stop buying stolen items, then crime will drop immensely since stealing will no longer be profitable. He said the time has come for the people to analyze themselves and wonder if they are also contributing to crime. Minister Duncan said it's easy for the people to call on the police to capture the criminals but shortly after they would begin to complain about the inadequate prison facility.
The Minister said his Ministry is also working on an early release policy which will allow the prison to release some of its prisoners depending on the crime they committed with electronic surveillance. Minister Duncan said while Electronic Surveillance is one of the possibilities used in early release programs its a very expensive way to monitor prisoners. He said that while these are some of the options that are being looked at, they have to be careful as hardened criminals who are in prison for a long period would also want to be considered for early release.
