A Camp Street prisoner who was receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) died on Wednesday night.
Aubrey Goodluck of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo was being treated for injuries he received while imprisoned at Camp Street in relation to a simple larceny matter.
When contacted yesterday afternoon Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine, told Stabroek News that the man was suffering from hypertension-related issues. “We cannot say what he died of. We are awaiting the post-mortem results which will determine that,” Erskine said.
Stabroek News understands that Goodluck was admitted to the hospital after he fell down while in a bathroom and sustained head injuries.
Goodluck’s body is at the GPH morgue and up to yesterday no relative of the man had gone there. However, a source told this newspaper that a prison officer was there yesterday to see the man’s body.
A post-mortem examination will be conducted on the Goodluck’s body this Monday.
Recently, two men, who had been imprisoned at the Georgetown Prisons, died. Edwin Niles and Nolan Noble died last month in different circumstances.
Niles was reportedly dealt a thrashing at the hands of the prison officials after he was found with seven live .22 rounds in the pockets of his pants after returning from a day of labour at army base Camp Ayanganna on July 2. It was during interrogation about where he got the rounds that he was beaten with a rubber hose and then burnt with a hot liquid. Niles had gotten the pants from a room at Camp Ayanganna which he had cleaned.
He subsequently died at the Georgetown Hospital. His cause of death was given as a clot in his lungs as a result of burns. The file on his matter has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who will decide if charges will be laid against any prison officer for his death.
Meanwhile, in the latter part of last month, Noble was taken from the Camp Street prison to the Georgetown Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. There were marks of violence on his body and a post-mortem examination revealed that he died from blunt force trauma to the head. Noble, a resident of Linden has been mentally ill for years owing to drug abuse and was in prison for murder.
Commissioner of Police (ag) Henry Greene had told the media that according to the doctors his injuries could have been self-inflicted. He said that from reports the man was isolated because of his mental condition.
“Sometime during the day we heard he was taken out, during which time he fell down. Other prisoners are saying so. They took him back to the cell and subsequently this prisoner was discovered not well and subsequently he was pronounced dead at the hospital”, he had said. Greene had informed the media that this is what the advice is so far showing but the file has not yet been completed. “But the doctor did say that the injuries found on the prisoner could have been self-inflicted”, he had stated.
