According to Isat Buchanan, Vybz Kartel’s lawyer, the Jamaican musician has been kept under inhumane conditions throughout his prison stay. The lawyer shared a statement with Urban Islandz, where he also claims Vybz Kartel is being kept in solitary confinement “lockdown” for up to 23 hours each day. He was convicted of murder in 2014, and sentenced to life in prison. Vybz must serve 35 years before becoming eligible for parole.
“The concerns are two-fold,” Buchanan begins. “The Department of Corrections does not have adequate facilities to care for persons with ill health while incarcerated as a guest of the state. Mr. Palmer is under private treatment at his expense. It is within the knowledge of prison officials that his health is a concern.” He continued, “To be placed under a 23-hour lockdown as an appellant given the state of his health is most unfortunate. His medical condition requires access to clean air. Breathing is essential to life that is common sense. It is inhumane punishment [to] execute this form of punishment on Mr Palmer and others given the state of the prisons.”
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Lawyer Claims Vybz Kartel Is Living In “Inhumane Conditions”
According to the artist’s parents, he’s being punished in this way due to guards finding contraband in his cell block. They claim that Vybz Kartel is the only prisoner being punished, despite other prisoners also being guilty of the offense. “Strangely enough, in addition to the 100s of cell phones found daily at that institution, thousands at lockups across the island. The supt seems to have ill will against Kartel,” a representative of the family also claims.
An Instagram post made by what claims to be the artist’s record label also similarly reads, “Since Tuesday the superintendent at tower street adult correctional centre, Superintendent Campbell has given strict orders to have Adidja Palmer aka Vybz Kartel under 23 hours lock down in a poorly ventilated cell despite his failing health at the tower street adult correctional centre as a form of apparent draconian style punishment.”
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