Public Defender probing treatment of prisoners in police custody

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Office of the Public Defender is expressing concern over attempts to stall a probe to determine the conditions at police cells and the treatment of prisoners while in police custody.
Public Defender Earl Witter told a local radio station that he had written to the Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington regarding the three-day investigations and was surprised at the efforts to prevent personnel from the Office of the Public Defender from visiting the cells at one police station in the capital.
Witter said he may have to go to the courts for assistance and recalled that the intention of the probe is to determine whether there have been infringements of human rights or inhumane treatment of persons while in police custody. (CMC)