Senior attorney calls for former death row inmates to access prison programmes

King’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim is calling for former condemned murderers awaiting re-sentencing at Dodds Prison to have access to all rehabilitative, educational, and vocational programmes available at the penal institution.

“We want people to come out better persons than those who go in,” he argued. “What is the point of locking away people if we do not intend to make them better when they come out?”

His statement comes in response to comments made last Friday by the prison’s psychologist, Sean Pilgrim, during a re-sentencing hearing in the High Court. He told the judge that inmates awaiting re-sentencing for murder are still kept in conditions similar to those when they were condemned to hang, with no access to rehabilitative programmes.

The psychologist said: “Death row inmates are housed in maximum security units in one-man cells, and movement within the prison is very closely monitored. So, unless certain conditions are met, they would not be allowed to leave the cells. I believe their visits and all interactions with outsiders are closely monitored, even more so than the average inmates. Other than religious programmes, unfortunately, these inmates are not prioritised for rehabilitative programmes.”

Condemned murderers had their sentences vacated when the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) declared, in June 2018, that the mandatory death penalty in Barbados was unconstitutional, and orders were given for the convicts to be re-sentenced.

In 2022, senior counsel Pilgrim, representing one of these inmates, informed the High Court that condemned killers were still housed in the area known as death row after the CCJ’s ruling and petitioned for them to be relocated. Following that, the inmates were moved to the maximum security block.

The outspoken attorney-at-law described the lack of access to rehabilitative programmes for these inmates as “distressing.” He contended that after their relocation, these individuals should have been allowed to participate in the prison’s various programmes.

“The presumption is that if you are being moved from ‘death row’, you now become a normal inmate, and you benefit from the programmes that the other inmates have available to them. So, when we were petitioning, it was on the basis that they were being kept on death row, contrary to their rights, and that they were entitled at that stage to have access to ordinary educational programmes, the visits — the things that ordinary inmates will expect to receive – and it was my belief that the court shared that understanding,” he said.

Pilgrim added: “As a bare minimum, they should not be limited as if they are on death row. Also, since they are likely to serve extended sentences and have been denied educational access for so long, this should be made available immediately.”

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb