Archbishop Joseph Harris says he is happy with the national dialogue which has been sparked by his pastoral letter calling for “pardon and mercy” for prisoners on remand who have been charged with minor offences and some of whom “when sentenced would have already served that time in remand."
Speaking with the GML Enterprise Desk, Harris said he had no specific list of prisoners in mind for pardon, “only those charged with petty crimes such as using obscene language, failure to pay maintenance, traffic offences, someone selling or smoking marijuana, a man stealing a few mangoes to take care of his family, those are the people who I feel are deserving of pardon not those charged with serious crimes.”
He said, “Somebody in jail for failing to pay maintenance, it means they can’t maintain the person they in jail for. We need to show mercy, that is where we need the social services to play a role.”
He said since his pastoral letter went out, “some parishioners have been very enthusiastic, it all depends on the parish priest.”
But the petitions which were sent out are due to be returned by May 26 so he would not know until then the number of people who have actually signed the petition.
Harris said he had written to the Commissioner of Prisons Sterling Stewart and the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard “to get a list of persons on Remand Yard charged with petty crimes and awaiting trial, but all I got is an acknowledgement of my letter. No list has as yet been provided to us.”
The Government and the prison authorities, he said, “know what is happening, all they have to do is pull it up on the computer and see who is there for a petty crime and serving longer than the sentence for the crime.”
Even without that information, Harris said, he was happy that “people are taking the petition seriously. At least it has started a conversation.”
He is hoping that in the ‘Jubilee Year of Mercy,’ in the Catholic calendar, that “mercy becomes a characteristic not just of the Christian community but of the wider society.”
One area crying out for mercy, he said, “is the plight of the remand yard prisoners.”
The “prison authorities will have to examine each case, but I am not saying everybody in remand yard should be sent home.
I speak of those charged with petty crimes who could not get bail.”
Harris said just over a month ago he was told by an attorney that there are 75-80 people on remand yard charged with minor crimes who have been unable to secure bail because of their situation, he said.
“You hear the AG talking about the cost of maintaining a remand yard prisoner at a time when the country is going through so much hardship, where we paying thousands of dollars a day for someone who already paid their dues to society. You ask what is the point?”
Harris said he believes that the number may have increased by now to perhaps 100.
If the State spends $25,000 for their upkeep each month, freeing them would save $2.5 million dollars.
Harris was particularly happy with the morning poll on i95.5FM on Tuesday in which 80 per cent of the respondents said they supported the initiative. He laughed, “This included the hosts Dale and Tony.”