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UK to build £25m Jamaican prison


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The UK is to spend £25m on building a prison in Jamaica so that foreign criminals in the UK can be sent home to serve sentences in the Caribbean.

More than 600 Jamaican nationals are in UK jails but cannot be deported because of Jamaica's poor prison conditions.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced the deal as he began a visit there.

However, calls from Jamaican MPs and campaigners for Britain to pay reparations for its role in the slave trade threaten to overshadow his trip.

Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller said she had raised the issue in talks, but Mr Cameron told reporters that financial reparations were "not the right approach".

The announcement of UK funding for a Jamaican prison aims to break a deadlock in negotiations over a prisoner transfer deal between the two countries.

_85823897_85823896.jpgImage copyrightPAImage captionDavid Cameron was greeted by an honour guard and national anthems at the airport in Kingston

Officials say the foreign aid-funded deal could save UK taxpayers £10m a year when transfers begin in 2020.

The average annual overall cost of a prison place in England and Wales for 2012-13 was about £36,000, according to National Offender Management Service accounts.

BBC political correspondent Carole Walker, who is travelling with Mr Cameron, says the PM has said he wants to improve a neglected relationship between the UK and Jamaica.

But she said "perhaps some eyebrows will be raised that the British foreign aid budget is being spent to build a prison in Jamaica".

The UK has committed to spending 0.7% of its GDP - about £12bn - on foreign aid, with its spending priorities focusing on health, education, water sanitation, the environment, economic growth, and promoting stable governance.

More than 300 existing offenders are expected to be sent back under the Jamaica prison scheme, which covers those sentenced to at least four years who have 18 months or more left to serve in custody.

Currently they cannot be sent to Jamaica because of fears that jail conditions in the country would allow a successful challenge under human rights law.

'Neglected relationship'

Jamaica is third highest in the list of foreign countries with nationals serving prison sentences in the UK. Almost 70% of the Jamaicans in prison in Britain are serving sentences for violence and drug offences.

The UK is contributing about 40% of the cost of building the planned jail, which would hold 1,500 people.

Mr Cameron, who is the first British prime minister to visit the island in 14 years, said it was "absolutely right" that foreign criminals were properly punished but not at the expense of the "hard-working British taxpayer".

He said the agreement would mean "Jamaican criminals are sent back home to serve their sentences, saving the British taxpayer millions of pounds but still ensuring justice is done".

However, Frances Crook from the Howard League for Penal Reform, said it was "the wrong use of foreign aid", and would not solve the problem of overcrowding in British prisons.

She added that without British support for the running of the new prison in Jamaica, it would "very quickly deteriorate", leaving the UK with the same problems that currently exist.

_85824855_029370039-1.jpgImage copyrightPAImage captionJamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller met David Cameron at Jamaica House in Kingston

Mr Cameron is also set to announce £300m of aid funding on infrastructure projects across the Caribbean, including roads, bridges and ports.

He was greeted on his arrival at Kingston Airport by an honour guard and national anthems before he visited RFA Lyme Bay, the British ship currently on anti-drug smuggling and emergency relief duties in the Caribbean.

'Obvious sensitivities'

The Jamaican PM gave Mr Cameron a warm welcome, hugging and kissing him on both cheeks - but the issue of whether the UK should pay reparations to Caribbean countries for its role in the slave trade has threatened to cast a shadow over the visit.

The Caricom reparations committee, which was set up by Caribbean nations to lobby for compensation, also wants an apology from the British government.

Ms Simpson Miller said she had raised the controversial question during one-to-one talks with the PM at her official residence in Kingston.

She said she told him that while she was "aware of the obvious sensitivities", Jamaica was "involved in a process under the auspices of the Caribbean community to engage the UK on the matter".

One politician, Mike Henry, has urged colleagues to turn their backs on Mr Cameron when he addresses the Jamaican parliament unless he puts the issue on his agenda.

Mr Cameron made no mention of the issue after the talks - but Number 10 said he had made clear to his opposite number that he "understood it was an issue for some people".

However he "reiterated the long-standing position of the United Kingdom that we do not believe reparations is the right approach".

 

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There goes your reparation

How did it go from reparation talk last night to building them a prison

Couldn't make it up

 

 

Oh and this...I guess this is their  "Reparations"...for the whole of the Carribean.

 

300M

The government is to invest £300 million in vital new infrastructure in the Caribbean such as roads, bridges and ports to help drive economic growth and development across the region.

The Prime Minister announced the new fund on Tuesday in Jamaica on the first leg of a 2-day visit focused on reinvigorating the relationship between the UK and the Caribbean countries. It will make the UK one of the largest bilateral donors to the region.

Delivered in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank, the infrastructure fund will use money from the UK’s existing aid budget to provide grants over the next few years for a range of projects that will help boost growth and trade across the region, creating jobs and opening up new market opportunities for British businesses.

Welcoming the fund, the Prime Minister said:

We want to help the Caribbean on their path of development – supporting economic growth and creating new opportunities for people living here.

That’s what this £300 million infrastructure fund is all about. It will help to fund upgrades to ports, new roads and new bridges – making it easier here for businesses to trade with one another and with the rest of the world. And it will help benefit British businesses too who have the knowledge and expertise to deliver the infrastructure improvements needed.

It makes the United Kingdom one of the largest bilateral donors to the region – concrete proof of our determination to reinvigorate this relationship.

The International Development Secretary Justine Greening said:

Too many Caribbean countries are held back because they remain vulnerable to severe economic or climate shocks. With some of the highest energy costs in the world, it is difficult for businesses to compete in global markets, leading to decades of slow or declining growth.

Britain’s close relationship with the Caribbean and our new support will help boost growth and kick-start economic recovery across the region as well as creating important trade and investment opportunities for the UK.

Types of infrastructure

Types of infrastructure the fund could provide include:

  • 750km of upgraded single-lane roads, including 30-40 bridges

  • 20 large water production, storage and transmission systems

  • 75km of sea and river defences

  • 15 ports upgraded by providing specialist equipment to speed up freight movements

  • 30 solid waste management projects for major cities/communities

Export finance

To further encourage UK-Jamaica business links, the government will also extend £100 million in export finance to Jamaica. With UK exports to the Caribbean totalling £1.1 billion and bilateral trade at £2.55 billion in 2014, the UK is the number one export destination for much of the Commonwealth Caribbean.

UK Export Finance will now be able to consider medium and long term financing options for private and public sector borrowers in the UK, looking to invest in Jamaica.

The government will also provide an additional:

  • £30 million to strengthen hospital infrastructure so they are more structurally resistant to natural disasters.

  • £30 million to support governments in the region to improve the management of their public finances so that they can improve their own public services. This funding will be available immediately.

Notes to editors

The Infrastructure Fund will be available to 8 Commonwealth countries in the region eligible for ODA (official development assistance): Jamaica, Guyana, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent & the Grenadines; as well as Montserrat as an ODA-eligible Overseas Territory.

The Smart Hospitals Programme will build on a successful £8.4 million pilot programme with new funding of £30 million. Funding will be available to 7 ODA-eligible Commonwealth countries in the region: Jamaica, Guyana, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines.

The “skills for growth” economic programme is aimed at the 5 ODA-eligible countries in the Eastern Caribbean: Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. These programmes will:

  • support governments in the region to get public finances under control while improving public services
  • support governments to make their countries more attractive to investors and for business to grow, creating more jobs and tax revenue
  • work in partnership with both the public and private sector to address the shortage of critical skills which is constraining economic growth and employment

DfID’s current programme from 2011 also includes security and justice, climate change and disaster resilience work.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-300-million-fund-for-caribbean-infrastructure

 

Wonder if that 25m for prisons is coming out of that budget.

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Jamaica should 'move on from painful legacy of slavery', says Cameron

British prime minister ducks official calls for UK to apologise for its role in the slave trade or pay reparations

 
3018.jpg?w=300&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10
 David Cameron addresses the parliament in Kingston, Jamaica. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Rowena Mason in Kingston

 

Wednesday 30 September 201516.06 BST Last modified on Wednesday 30 September 201520.05 BST

 

David Cameron has called for Jamaica and the UK to “move on” from the deep wounds caused by slavery but ducked official calls for Britain to apologise for its role or pay reparations.

Speaking to the Caribbean country’s parliament, the prime minister struck a defiant note as he spoke of his pride that Britain had played a part in abolishing the “abhorrent” trade, without highlighting its historic involvement in the transfer of slaves from west Africa and ownership of slaves in the Caribbean.

He called for the two countries to “move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future”.

His trade trip to Jamaica, the first for 14 years by a UK prime minister, has been overshadowed by the issue of slavery. Cameron was warmly received by a military band playing God Save the Queen on arrival at the airport and received a hug from the country’s prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller.

However, during the trip, high-profile politicians and campaigners drew attention to a distant relative of Cameron’s, Gen Sir James Duff, who was compensated for losing 202 Jamaican slaves in 1833 when the trade was abolished.

 

He has also been pressed to “atone” for slavery personally and on behalf of the UK by Bert Samuels, a member of the National Reparations Commission, and Simpson Miller publicly raised the issue of compensation after their bilateral talks.

 

In response, Cameron initially did not address the issue of reparations or an apology, telling UK media he was in the country to talk about trade and the future. But speaking to the national parliament in Kingston, he made clear the UK wanted to draw a line under the legacy of slavery.

“While there is indeed much to celebrate about our past, it would be wrong to do so while ignoring the most painful aspects of it – a period which should never be forgotten, and from which history has drawn the bitterest of lessons,” Cameron said.

“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 his reason for wanting to come to Jamaica was because of the need to strengthen the bonds between the UK and the Caribbean.

A No 10 spokesman said Cameron told the Jamaican prime minister that the “longstanding position of the United Kingdom is that we do not believe reparations is the right approach”.

During the trip, Cameron announced the UK would give £300m to the Caribbean to pay for infrastructure. The UK will also build a £25m prison in Jamaica using the foreign aid budget to house about 300 of the country’s citizens currently serving sentences in the UK.

 

Editorial: David Cameron would rather talk about the future than the past in Jamaica. But slavery bequeathed prosperity to Britain and penury elsewhere
 
 
Read more

He also pressed Caribbean countries to help stand up for the rights of small islands, including the Falklands, to enjoy the self-determination that has been “so hard won in the Caribbean” amid UK diplomatic fears that Argentina is gaining influence in the region.

Some Jamaican MPs shook their heads vigorously as Cameron said he hoped the two countries could move on from slavery, although they loudly applauded his commitments on foreign aid.

In her speech to introduce Cameron, Simpson Miller said there was more that united the UK and Jamaica than separates the two countries and invited him to holiday with his family on the island.

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But she also underlined that there were differences on the “difficult issue of reparations” as they seek to “actively engage the UK on the matter”. Her comments on reparations provoked loud banging on the table by MPs in the parliament, which was far from full for Cameron’s speech.

Andrew Holness, the Jamaican leader of the opposition, told the parliament that there “must be ways of repairing what is universally agreed to be the wrongs of the past”.

In contrast to Cameron, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who lived in Jamaica for two years in his youth, said the UK “should apologise for the slave trade and understand that the history of Jamaica is, yes, one of amazing joy and achievement since independence in 1962, but it’s also a history of the most gross exploitation of people”.

Asked whether he thought the UK should pay reparations, Corbyn said: “We should be doing all we can to try and right the wrongs of the past – improve trade facilities and arrangements, improve support for Jamaica. That is, in a sense, a form of reparation, though I would be interested to hear what the proposals are and what the discussions are.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/jamaica-should-move-on-from-painful-legacy-of-slavery-says-cameron

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ironic considering the british are the underlying cause of why the homeland has bred so many criminals

 

 

 

what do you mean by bred though?

 

on a slightly separate point, its 600 or so jamaican nationals in UK prisons - does that even make up one prison?

its really a small number

they are building a super prison (to send people back to) with the capacity of 1500...right

I very much doubt they will invest unless they can get a return on their investment, so the UK will be profiting from incarcerating Jamaicans. I bet that many of the Jamaican nationals that are in UK prisons today are there as a result of the same social dynamics that cause their British counterparts (of which there are clearly thousands) to be there. Why doesn't the UK sort out its own back yard first?

 

also its not just Jamaicans, Britain built a super prison in Nigeria to send Nigerian criminals back

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ironic considering the british are the underlying cause of why the homeland has bred so many criminals

 

 

 

what do you mean by bred though?

 

on a slightly separate point, its 600 or so jamaican nationals in UK prisons - does that even make up one prison?

its really a small number

they are building a super prison (to send people back to) with the capacity of 1500...right

I very much doubt they will invest unless they can get a return on their investment, so the UK will be profiting from incarcerating Jamaicans. I bet that many of the Jamaican nationals that are in UK prisons today are there as a result of the same social dynamics that cause their British counterparts (of which there are clearly thousands) to be there. Why doesn't the UK sort out its own back yard first?

 

also its not just Jamaicans, Britain built a super prison in Nigeria to send Nigerian criminals back

 

bred as in systamatically create its there fault our race has become so criminalized to this extent, if they were treated like human beings to begin with then you know.....

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ironic considering the british are the underlying cause of why the homeland has bred so many criminals

 

 

 

what do you mean by bred though?

 

on a slightly separate point, its 600 or so jamaican nationals in UK prisons - does that even make up one prison?

its really a small number

they are building a super prison (to send people back to) with the capacity of 1500...right

I very much doubt they will invest unless they can get a return on their investment, so the UK will be profiting from incarcerating Jamaicans. I bet that many of the Jamaican nationals that are in UK prisons today are there as a result of the same social dynamics that cause their British counterparts (of which there are clearly thousands) to be there. Why doesn't the UK sort out its own back yard first?

 

also its not just Jamaicans, Britain built a super prison in Nigeria to send Nigerian criminals back

 

bred as in systamatically created its there fault our race has become so criminalized to this extent, if they were treated like human beings to begin with then you know.....

 

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No your are absolutely wrong

My people are not "so criminalized". Jamaica breeds winners in spite of the atrocities of the past. The legacy of slavery has made life difficult (and poor governance post independence) but every society has criminals

You're talking about breeding "so many criminals" on the bk of this new prison talk. Because you've obviously taken on this criminal jamaicans rhetoric.

600 jamaican nationals out of the millions of contributing jamaican nationals and their descendants in this country?

Are you alright? That a nation of criminals is it?

When we came an fought for this country an then rebuilt in the face of abject racism were we a bunch of criminals then?

We never have been a "breed" of criminals an we never will be. Jus cos you can see an hear us doesn't mean we are the worlds biggest problem or the UKs for that matter.

People love to get frensy over a negative story about jamaica. Why? Cant you read facts?

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