Prison to review all staff
(CNS): Following the revelations that a convicted sex-offender had been employed for several years at the prison without having admitted his past crimes, the director has stated that HMP Northwardwill be reviewing all of its employees to ensure that there are no more surprises. Neil Lavis said that no system was fool proof if those recruited give out dishonest information but said there would be an effort to double-check the background of existing officers and that recruitment practices would be improved. The ministry has also confirmed that Ricardo Fisher, who resigned when his past history was revealed, will not be prosecuted for failing to declare his criminal history. Despite enquiries regarding his status in Cayman, the immigration department has failed to respond.
Lavis, who arrived long after Fisher was employed, told CNS that all existing officers will be checked again under a full internal review and the ministry was examining the introduction of additional background check mechanisms which could be used for all of the command and control agencies under its remit, in consultation with the Portfolio of the Civil Service and the head of the civil service.
The revelations about Fisher came against the backdrop of other revelations that a man under investigation for murder had been recruited to the RCIPS and had been placed quietly on paid leave for some two years without the public being informed. This was exposed when Tyrone Findlay was convicted of murder in Jamaica last month.
The two issues have brought the practices relating to recruitment and background checks on law enforcement officials into sharp focus. A long held public concern has been that because Cayman is so dependent on overseas employees many questionable characters have slipped through the net and are in positions of trust or power.
Lavis said he would be taking a closer look at the prison staff but warned that it was not always easy to find the truth about everyone coming from overseas. While information is easily accessible in the United States, it is not always the case in other jurisdictions, especially in the UK where the legislation is much stricter and prevents the wider publishing of offenders' details.
Category: Crime
I would ask that the responsible Government authorities explain why Ricardo Fisher is not being prosecuted for lying on his job application. The Cayman Islands will continue to get little respect from the rest of world as long as we continue this trend that people can come here and mislead us and outright lie to us with little real consequences.
Because lying on a job application is not a criminal offence? As an employer I like the idea though. Perhaps we can extend it to all applicants for a job – not sure I see a difference in where the person comes from. Perhaps you do?
Lying on a Government job application, or an immigration application, is in fact an offence.
Yes but if you have not read the "policy" surround lying or indeed have understood fully the ramifications of lying, would that count as ok.
Yes, because if you are not from here you are also making an application to immigration. Lying to them is clearly an offence. Fraud (inherent in such lies) is also an offence.
Knowing nothing of the facts of this particular 'sex-offender's' case, it does seem to me that some individals get caught up in the net at a young age, and find their lives are unfairly ruined.
The Compass years ago carried an article which stated that 50% of girls from a group of Caribbean islands ( I won't quote which ones.) had sexual intercourse by the age of 13, so I take it that 50% of males in these areas were sex-offenders too. What I'm saying is the the description, 'sex offender,' covers many types of crime, yet we all assume they are equally depraved. It's like calling someone a "Jihadist" and assuming they like lopping off heads or blowing up civilians.
The facts are listed on the U.S. sex offender website. What more do you need?
I know of an individual here on a work permit who fathered a child when he was 19. The mother was 12. He is a rapist. He also has a clean police record. Do not ever try and tell me that that behaviour is acceptable. If it is in some cultures then we should ban those cultures from our shores immediately.
i think the whole island needs checking once your not caymanian.
Unfortunately, Caymanians are some of the worst offenders! Pedophiles, defilement and rape.
Not only are there person in the Prison who comes with a dirty record. There are many hiding in the private sector also.
Check the back ground of your employes who have lived in USA and the Bahamas before,you will find that they are drugs and fire arms deportees.
The majority of officers are from Jamaica, with a sprinkle of Caymanians and now Filipinos.
The Jamaican senior officers brought in their friends and friends of friends and declined Caymanian applicants.
They need to check some of the degrees that some are holding as well cause marl road say they maybe questionable.
Why is the prison service permitted to recruit primarily from one place? Especially since it is a place the private sector has been told it should curtail it’s recruitment from? More do as I say, not as I do, crap from those supposedly in charge?
How come we can't find any caymanian to do the job?? How come the government preeches, threatens private sectors to hire caymanians yet govenment doesn't practice what they preech? You are going to tell me you can't find a caymanian to act in the capacity of a Prison Guard???
“The immigration department failed to respond.” Newsworthy?
Lots will b leaving now, a few skeleton will be soon be expose lol
I wonder if the prison might inform us of the nationality of origin of its staff. Many that are called Caymanian are originally from elsewhere. Perhaps if the facts were known as to where the Caymanian staff are originally from the conspiracy theorists who proclaim that a particular foreign nationality and culture is overwhelming elements of the civil service would be silenced.
….Are you looking for the word Jamaican…?
no, found it right away.
They say that is "illegal" to do.. "Caymanian is Caymanian".
No differentiations.
While I understand that and appraciate the good status holders with us, there is a broader need to ID who are really Caymanian… for many reasons.
Who "They" is? How did "They" get their status?
Was the rollover put in place especially to stop the overflow of those "They"?
Once a person is granted Caymanian status, it should no longer matter their country of origin, they are simply Caymanian Period.
True – except when you are considering the process and whether or not there has been any discrimination (whether intentional or by accident of circumstance) in particular against "cultural Caymanians" or in favour of any particular other nationality of origin.
The entire legal framework in relation to the employment of foreign nationals in the Cayman Islands is based on balance. Includes in that balance is the demographics in society and in any particular work place. If Caymanians are to be a minority, it is expected by our laws that they be the largest minoirity. In that way a Caymanian in any workplace will never feel the odd one out, and in society, no particular culture overwhelm.
The private sector deals with these restrictions. In fact, it is forced to by the government. Where the law is being applied, businesses are frequesntly told "you have too many of x nationality. Bring some variety to your recruitment if you cannot find a Caymanian." Those limitations, whilst sometimes inconvenient, make sense. They prevent one foreign culture dominating, particularly if it dominates to the exclusion of others, and seeks to prevent making Caymanians feel like total outsiders in their own land.
Do government workers not live in the same community as the rest of us?
So, the questions are simple. Are certain government entities not playing by the same rules imposed on the private sector to seek to ensure some balance in society? Is there in fact any active discrimination either in favour of or against a particular foreign nationality, culture, or ethnic group in our society or not?
Accurate statistics will help identify any issues that may need to be addressed. Now, whether anyone will share them or not is a different matter. Anything to hide?
But there is some difference still between on who carries a foreign passport and calls that country home, and one that carries a Cayman passport and calls these Islands home.
Their criminal past matters.
Only until it expires, becomes void, or is revoked. Period.
Almost never can happen as a Status holder will inevitably have accured Article 8 rights.
Nope. It is not a citizenship. Just a residency status, granted on specific terms and conditions.
LOL. Ummmm.. Do you know that Britain revokes British Citizenship if it is deemed in the national interest? Those rights are not absolute but are qualified.
It certainly can and does happen.
On the other hand there is always a possibility that particular areas of the civil service have been overwhelmed by a particular nationality to the exclusion of everyone else, including Caymanians.
AND health services too, I hear….
Every department are ran by some foreigner, they are controlling our islands.
Cannot wait to watch the powers that be explain those results.
It is no wonder the powers that be are against the public knowing the names of sex offenders. Our dear UK does not make the names public, that's why caymamians must suffer at the hands of those criminals. What is not allowed in the UK, cannot be allowed in the Cayman Islands. What a shame. Open arms to perpetrators of sex offenders.
The names of all sex offenders in the UK are entered into a Central Register, which can be accessed by anyone with a genuine reason via an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check. A genuine reason would be if (say) a person applies for a job (paid or unpaid) that involves working with children or vulnerable adults. The idea is to protect past offenders from vigilantism, while at the same time preventing them from having access to potential victims.
Does the Cayman Islands have a similar system? If not, stop trying to blame the UK.
Employers do not need any special permission to Google their employees and candidates. It should be common practice!
There's this search engine online that works amazingly well in every country. It's called Google, but there's also Bing. And another really good one is duckduckgo.com, the search engine that doesn't track you (Like Big Brother Google and Bing that track you for marketing and $$ purposes). You'd be surprised what you can uncover quite simply with that. Like that canadian South African that was a big wig in rotary and managed to get a top position in a local law firm. (Wanted by the law back in Canada)
Perhaps the authorities at HMP do not know that when you request a UK police clearance certificate for immigration, rather than employment purposes, you get a fuller picture. As persons are being brought into our Islands, should the full "visa/immigration" background check of the same nature required by the US when a UK national is applying for a US visa be the one that is required?
The ACPO website states that it is the same certificate regardless of whether it is for the US or here, and it is specifically said to be for immigration.
Exactly, and that is the one that should be being used, not the one for domestic UK employment.