Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), Lester Lo­gie, is rais­ing an alarm over the coun­try’s prison sys­tem, not­ing that near­ly two-thirds of the in­car­cer­at­ed pop­u­la­tion is made up of re­mand in­mates—in­di­vid­u­als await­ing tri­al who have not been con­vict­ed of any crime.

Dur­ing an ad­dress to mem­bers on so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, Lo­gie said the na­tion’s cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties were nev­er de­signed to ac­com­mo­date such a large re­mand pop­u­la­tion. He said the sit­u­a­tion is plac­ing added pres­sure on both se­cu­ri­ty and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion ef­forts.

“The prison pop­u­la­tion has changed, and now the Prison Ser­vice is forced to give these in­mates pro­grammes, and those pro­grammes, most times, com­pro­mise the se­cu­ri­ty with­in the prison,” Lo­gie ex­plained.