A study released yesterday appeared to blunt Jamaica's claim that most of the people deported from the United States were socialised in crime in America.
By Vernon DavidsonThe study showed that the mean average age of the 12,036 Jamaicans who were kicked out of the US between 1997 and 2003 was 23 years, and that of the 8,228 deportees whom the researchers said they were "able to trail consistently" 63 per cent were convicted of a serious crime.
It also revealed that the average deportee had spent approximately 11 years in the United States before running afoul of the law.
"The majority of deportees are not people who went to the US at five or six years old," Dr Bernard Headley, the principal investigator and author of the study, said at a mid-morning function at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.
"The most frequent age at the time of entry into the United States for all criminal or convicted deportees was around 19 to 20 years," Headley said as he presented his analysis of data supplied by the US Department of Homeland Security at the request of the US Embassy in Kingston which commissioned the study.
Headley's analysis of the data has bolstered US Ambassador Sue Cobb's consistent disagreement with the argument often advanced by Jamaican Government officials that many of the persons the US expels left the island as youngsters and have little or no connection here.
Yesterday, Ambassador Cobb, in her address, said that view was among a number of common myths that surround the return of deportees.
Kingston had also expressed concern that among those deported are hardened criminals who contribute to Jamaica's high level of crime and violence.
In 2001, a total of 1,139 murders were recorded by the police. The following year, police statistics showed a total of 1,045 murders were committed. The figure fell to 971 last year, but has made a significant jump so far this year to 1,029.
The contentious issue resurfaced in June this year when Prime Minister P J Patterson, reacting to a decision by the British Government to grant early release and deport hundreds of Jamaican convicts in England, accused London of dumping onto Jamaica a problem that should be handled by the UK.
At the time, Patterson argued that the decision would make it more difficult for Jamaica to control violent crime, made worse by the illegal drug trade.
But despite the claims by Jamaica's security officials that deportees are linked to many of the crimes committed, particularly murders, the US Homeland Security Department data say that of the Jamaicans convicted of serious crimes in America, only two per cent were for homicide.
"The crimes for which deportees were most frequently convicted, and most likely did time in US prisons for, were drug-related," Headley, a University of the West Indies professor of criminology, said. "Sale and/or distribution of cocaine and marijuana alone accounted for more than half of all convictions."
But the data did not appear to sway Jamaica Defence Force chief-of-staff Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, who was among the local law enforcement authorities invited to the presentation. He argued that criminal deportees' impact on crime and violence is significant, given that their attempts to assert their authority in their communities when they return to the island invariably spark violence.
Professor Barry Chevannes, who was also in the audience, drew attention to the fact that the data did not state the nature of the homicides. "There's a need for a refined study on that aspect," he said.
Headley suggested that one strategy that could be used by Kingston and Washington to calm anger over the deportee issue was for either side to assume the role of the other.
"Americans are not going into their maximum security prisons and saying 'let us find the most hardened, dangerous criminals and unleash them on Jamaica'," he said.
The issue for the US, he argued, was effective management of prison space by sending home offenders who are not American citizens.
On the other hand, he seemed to suggest that the US could empathise with Jamaica's feeling on the issue.
Cobb, however, had earlier addressed that issue, saying that the US acknowledged the concerns expressed by Caribbean countries and by deportees about the social ramifications.
However, she said that for the US to sustain public support for its open immigration policy, it was essential to maintain its integrity. "This includes ensuring that visitors and emigrants abide by our country's laws," she said.
