Letter of the Day | Why not build schools before we build more prisons?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The recent announcement that the Government of Jamaica is advancing plans for a new maximum-security correctional facility deserves serious national discussion. The Government says a site in St Catherine has been identified and that the project is intended to replace ageing infrastructure while improving security and rehabilitation.

Jamaica’s correctional facilities cannot simply be ignored. Tower Street and St Catherine Adult correctional centres are old, overcrowded and in need of serious attention. Human dignity applies to prisoners too, and correctional officers deserve safe and appropriate working conditions.

But I want to ask : Why are we so prepared to invest billions in places to incarcerate our people while many of our children desperately need greater investment in the places designed to educate and develop them? Why not schools, modern technical and vocational centres, and stronger literacy and numeracy programmes?

Why not more counsellors, social workers, special education support and intervention programmes for vulnerable children? Why not safe spaces where our young people can discover that they have gifts, dignity and a future?

If we know that some children are leaving school unable to read adequately, if young people are struggling to find meaningful opportunities, and if families and communities are confronting violence and hopelessness, then our national security conversation cannot begin only when someone enters the criminal justice system.

The classroom, the guidance counsellor, the chaplain/campus minister and the teacher who refuses to give up on a struggling boy or girl are all part of national security.

The Government has presented the proposed prison as part of a broader approach that includes rehabilitation and reintegration. That makes the present moment an opportunity for an even larger national conversation: What proportion of our resources are we prepared to invest upstream, before our young people encounter the correctional system?

Imagine the equally bold announcement: $8 billion to $10 billion for a major national programme targeting struggling schools, literacy, technical education, youth development and children most at risk of falling through the cracks.

Children would see laboratories, libraries, workshops, playing fields, music rooms and classrooms alive with possibility. Let us build humane correctional facilities where necessary.

But let us build something even more powerful: young Jamaicans who never need them.

REV FR KINGSLEY ASPHALL

Kingston, Jamaica