A former Jamaican national who accused local prison officials of abuse has won a US legal battle based on similar claims.

A recent edition of the New York Daily News Online stated Theresa St. John was abused while in the US Immigration and Naturalization Service detention centre.

In an article entitled "Immigrant Horror Stories'' the newspaper stated Ms St. John entered the centre in 1995 after "serving prison time in Bermuda for a drug case''. Ms St. John reportedly told the Daily News her treatment inside the US facility was "like torture''.

She said in order to recover her confiscated toiletries and underwear she had to pose topless and cradle her breasts as guards took photos. And guards repeatedly confined her in a straitjacket and forcibly drugged her because she refused medication, she said.

She was eventually released in 1996 during what was reportedly an "investigation into her treatment''.

Last month a federal judge awarded more than $88,000 in fees to Ms St. John's lawyer in a ruling that blasted government handling of the case, said the Daily News. Coincidentally, Ms St. John was at the centre of controversy locally when she accused prison officials of abuse while awaiting trial. In 1993 Ms St. John, then 18, and her sister Marlene, then 22, were convicted of importing some $140,000 worth of cocaine into the Island.

They were sentenced to five and seven years, respectively. She twice attempted suicide and later alleged she had been physically and verbally abused by prison officials. The mother-of-two said guards kicked her in the stomach and caused her to miscarry.

She said the incident occurred after she and her sister were refused the right to make a telephone call on Mothers' Day.

And she claimed she was dragged across the floor on her back and struck on the back of her head when she refused to surrender her bra. A subsequent inquiry into the allegations cleared prison officials and said there was "no evidence that undue force was used against Theresa St. John by any prison officer''.

However, the Treatment of Offenders Board's report did uncover a "lack of sensitivity on the part of some prison officers to the needs of this highly stressed and difficult girl''.

It also listed numerous recommendations which included standardising restraining methods, and staff training in human relations. But two women who supported Ms St. John's allegations rejected the Treatment of Offenders Board's report as a "cover-up''.

COURTS CTS