No toilets, stooping over holes to defecate, and standing in faeces when showering is the picture painted by men who have been held in lock-ups at Denham Town and Hunt’s Bay police stations in the west Kingston and St Andrew South police divisions, respectively.

However, commanding officers for both divisions have denied such claims, pointing to frequent inspections that see to the proper running of the facilities.

A man who was in lock-up at Hunt’s Bay Police Station for more than three months described the situation as deplorable.

“When I came out, I burned my clothes. There is no toilet. We have to stoop down and [defecate] in a hole on the floor. Because we have to do that, the men inside started calling it a bike… because of how we have to be stooping,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Saturday.

“It’s stink! It is only one time a day that they let us use the bathroom, but it depends on which police is there. You have some police who will let us use the bathroom more than one time. When they are not there, sometimes the other men [defecate] in the visiting bags that their people bring food in, and they have to keep the bag until the next day to empty it in the bathroom. To get rid of that scent, they light tissue so the smoke scent take out the [faeces] scent,” he continued.

Another man, who was in the lock-up for two weeks, gave another name for the toilet area.

“There is no toilet. We called it drop straight, because when you bend down and [defecate], it drop straight in a hole on the ground. When I was released, I went straight to bathe and throw away the clothes that I had in there. The place stink,” he recalled.

Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) policy stipulates that physical checks should take place once every 24 hours, including checking the structural integrity of cells, among other areas.

Commanding officer for the St Andrew South Division Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts said because of limited resources, lock-ups were not at the level they ought to be.

“I would agree that none of the lock-ups would be at the ideal conditions, given that the persons that we have in these lock-ups are all presumed innocent until proven guilty. And I’d want to think that as human beings they should be housed in conditions that are suitable. I’ll tell you, though, we try our best, given the resources, to ensure that the lock-ups are habitable,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“In terms of sanitation, we have ancillary staff at the two major lock-ups in St Andrew South that work everyday to ensure that these areas are cleaned. We also do daily checks at our lock-ups… cell checks, mandatory searches. We have a strong governance structure that will pick up on issues of concern.”

Ricketts said that not only does the division has its own “strong internal governance”, there were also external agencies that do inspections.

“Our justices of the peace, on behalf of the custos, on a monthly basis visit our lock-ups and inspect our lock-ups. In fact, I think that as early as last week was the last visit here at Hunt’s Bay where the custos himself visited the lock-ups, interacted with the prisoners and looked at the conditions. Afterwards, we had a conversation about his findings and they were most positive.”

Ricketts related that the main concern ventilated was access to dental health, and recommendations were made to get dental practitioners at the lock-ups.

Former prison chaplain Rev Herro Blair Jr told the Sunday Observer that reformation cannot be achieved if the mental well-being of accused and convicted individuals was left untapped.

“The system itself, I think, is very inhumane. And from the process of arrest, before we get to court, I have argued that the Jamaican system is one that crosses a line in terms of the human rights of the individual. Just being in a police lock-up and seeing rats that look like cats and sleeping on the floor when you’ve not been proven guilty can terrorise the minds of the ordinary person,” Blair Jr said.

Last year, the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA) released a report on the state of a number of lock-ups in Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland, and Hanover — all from Area One in western Jamaica.

The report said that there were serious occupational health and safety concerns when it carried out prisoners-in-custody (PIC) inspections at the Freeport and Barnett Street lock-ups in St James; the Negril and Savanna-la-mar lock-ups in Westmoreland; the Falmouth and Clark’s Town lock-ups in Trelawny; and the Hanover divisional headquarters in Lucea.

Last year as well, the Jamaica Police Federation said the poor state of lock-ups across the island was affecting the health of some cops. It said it was important for funding to be made available to remedy the situation at those facilities.

A man, who was in lock-up at Denham Town earlier this year, charged that the facility was unkempt and gives the impression that all individuals held there are guilty of heinous crimes.

“They have a little bathing part that they call bathroom… because that is not a bathroom. You will be standing up and bathing, a man a look at you. You have two parts in there: short side and tall side. Over short side, you can’t see any light. It is just darkness. And then there is a little part where you bathe,” he related.

“There is a little thing for you to sit on, and you can’t sit on it good. You have to stand up and [defecate]. It is nasty. A lot of dirty water; you have to be standing up in dirty water while you are bathing.”

The man said that on the “short side”, they showered at the front of the cell. Whilst on the “tall side”, which he said is more spacious, there is a section that is opened and detainees are taken there to shower.

“The food and everything mixed up. It is the same place in there that they throw down the plates, so food mixed up in the water and you know the water get sour and everything. And then you have to stand up in there same way and bathe. It’s just dirty water. It makes no sense.”

He also complained bitterly about the odour.

“The place stink. The bathing area is very stink. You will not even be charged and they have you there for a month,” he said.

Another man, who was released last week after being charged, asked: “Where is my human rights?”

He said he did not defecate while ion custody “because, to go and use the bathroom you have to stoop over the toilet area. And it’s just pure [faeces] water running on the ground, so you are basically standing up in [faeces] water. When you are bathing, you’re actually standing up in the same [faeces] water. When you stoop to defecate, water is splashing up on you. If I ever catch any infection because of this place…” he said, opting not to complete his thought.

Commanding officer for Kingston Western Police Division Senior Superintendent Michael Phipps told the Sunday Observer that he has never heard any such complaints, and said that based on inspections by the PCOA and Divisional Inspection team, the state of the lock-up has not been found to be unsanitary.

“We have those facilities cleaned at least twice per day, every day. We have not had any complaints of any sort about the condition of those facilities. This is really news to me and I’m surprised by that. I’m there regularly to check in and I don’t get those complaints. Denham Town Police Station lock-up won the PCOA award for best lock-up within Area 4,” Phipps said.

“We know that if conditions in lock-up are bad, they usually go to the courts and complain to the judges and so on, and we haven’t had any such report from any court whatsoever. I really want to dismiss this as pure mischief.”

Responding to the claims that there were no toilets in the lock-ups, Phipps described those as lies.

“That is not true. We have very good toilet facilities inside that lock-up. The area that they use to shower and everything; top of the line condition. Clean, spic and span at all times. We even have visitation from justices of the peace and so on, and they come in unannounced. We have not had any reports from them suggesting anything like that,” he said.