(Jamaica Observer) The commission that probed the circumstances leading to a fire that killed seven female wards of the state at the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre in May last year has blamed a police constable for starting the deadly blaze and blasted Correctional Department staff, including Commis-  sioner June Spence-Jarret, for keeping the girls in cramped, inhumane conditions.

In his report, which the Government has had since mid-January and which was first made public by Nationwide Radio on Friday afternoon, sole commissioner Justice Paul Harrison, retired president of the Court of Appeal, castigated Spence-Jarrett for taking the decision in March 2008 to house 23 girls in what was called the Office Dormitory — a building with floor spacing that, under the National Building Code, should not have accommodated more than five persons.

The ill-fated Office Dormitory at the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre.