Criminal history

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I read with interest the headline article in The Sunday Gleaner of January 19, 2025 about the conditions at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility. The article was, however, let down by some historical inaccuracies in one paragraph, namely, that the Tower Street prison was used for slave trading and that the Spanish Town prison was built in 1655. The Tower Street prison was commissioned in 1840, began construction in 1845, and was still not finished by 1856. As the slave trade was abolished in 1808, and slavery in 1834, the prison could not have been used for this purpose. And, although when the British arrived in Jamaica in 1655 they found an old prison in Spanish Town, this was eventually demolished, and replaced by a new prison in 1776, which stands to this day (in modified form). While historians have much more work to do investigating the history of the penal system in Jamaica, during and after slavery, to find out more on this subject, readers can refer to James Robertson’s Gone is the Ancient Glory (2005) and Diana Paton’s No Bond but the Law (2004), which examine the history of Spanish Town and the history of criminality and the law in Jamaica during the pre- and post-Emancipation periods, respectively.

ANDREW WILLIAMS

St Andrew