The cost of the new prison on the drawing board to be constructed has been reduced.
According to Acting Commissioner of the Bahamas Department of Corrections Doan Cleare the $90 million price tag has been reduced to approximately $50 million to $60 million. He said, “a part of the $93 million, what people fail to understand, was a $12 million court, so that was taken out. Also too, we have scaled back some of the sizes of the administration complex we’ve saved a few million dollars there. We’ve scaled back on the solar system, so there are enough of savings.”
Minister of National Security spoke to the areas which the new correctional facility must serve. He said, “we have to deal with mentally challenged residents with care, that we have to treat them properly because under the Mental Health Act if we’re not able to house them to standard then the 149 of them would have to go next door to Sandilands which probably isn’t equipped to secure persons. And so a part of the exercise with finance, as I understand it, is to justify everything.”
