It’s Not Too Late: 2011′s Top 5 Posts

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2011 was a year of continued transitions, trials and triumphs. As a consequence of all this, I did not get to blog as much as I wanted to. WordPress’ handy end of year summary reminded me that I only posted 9 updates last year. Moreover, my older material on policy and evaluation seems to be the more popular!

Growing traffic to this space and the enquiries that it has generated demonstrates that there is a definite interest in research and how people and organisations can use evidence to enhance the impact of their work. Additionally, given the changes in technology, rapidly shifting public sentiments and consumer behaviour, I think the business of research is changing in ways that many of our research professionals, and those that consume research, have failed to adequately respond to. I am going to take a bigger chunk out of this trend in 2012.

Without further delay, the best of 2011:

1. #Jptweetup Remixed: The Tweetheart Tweetup – The Jamaica Pegasus’ social media leadership was an important event last year.

2. A Friend’s View of Egypt: From the Inside – A friend’s understanding of what is happening in is homeland.

3. Your Money eZine Business Summit 2011: Key Takeaways – Some great lessons from seasoned business people.

4. My Coffee Obsession, Act 1, #eatjamaican – What the title of the post says.

5. We Cannot Go On Like This – Worrying human capital trends for Jamaica as the youngest and brightest feel their future lies elsewhere.

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Wishing all my readers a productive year full of fun, meaningful work.

A Very Bad Week for Justice


The Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility courtesy of Chrysaora.

 

The last week and a half has been dominated by stories of riots in prisons and concerns about human rights abuses (that is when we are not talking about Air Jamaica). The coverage and discourse has troubled me. What’s new you ask…

On February 8th, there was a riot at the Horizon Adult Correctional Facility. There was a tone of surprise and being caught of guard which took me by surprise. The story has also been largely absent from the local blogosphere, with a couple notable exceptions. Here is a good one. The prisoners claim they rioted because of lack of water and deteriorating conditions. The correctional services opined that the riot occurred because they instituted tough measures to combat the trade in contraband. Still others pointed out that the causes of the riot mirrored those that produced prison riots elsewhere. Wait, one more layer. Yesterday, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture stated in a press conference that the riot was foreseen and he wrote to the authorities warning as much.

The quelling of the riot was brutal. There has been relative silence from the government on the extent of the injuries to prisoners. Prisoners were reported to have multiple head and defensive injuries. Some were beaten unconscious. This aspect of the story has not gotten as much attention as I feel it should have. There is a sentiment that since they are prisoners, they deserve what ever they get. They are not deserving of basic rights. I’m not talking about cable TV. I’m talking about not getting brutalised. Most of the convicts will become ex-convicts at some point. I wonder what will be their attitude to society once released? Rehabilitation is not about being soft on crime, it is about giving ex-cons options. And in so doing, building a safer society. Sometimes I think we do not see how all the little pieces make the whole. With over 1,600 murders in 2009 (the same as a low intensity civil war!!!), we have one of the highest murder rates in the world. A significant part of this is committed by reoffending criminals. Continue reading