– lawyer/politicians agitate for change countrywide
“The first thing that hits you is the stench. It is a smell that no human being should have to experience. The smell is so unbearable that it causes your eyes to water and your skin to burn,” a young professional related of his experience in the Brickdam lock-ups.
The professional, who preferred to remain anonymous, had been involved in a minor accident, which resulted in him being arrested and hauled down to the Brickdam Police Station. After one night in the confines of that place some call a “hellhole”, he said that it was an experience he would never forget and one that he would not want to be repeated in this lifetime.
It was not just the stench or the fact that there were some 83 persons in the lock-ups that particular night. The source was also stunned by the “whole new world” behind those walls; from the beating and assault of a man who reportedly molested a 12-year-old girl to the forced “fanning” of some by others and the bartering of phone calls for food.
Some men in the lock-ups were reportedly paid by the relatives of the child to beat the man and before they commenced their acts of assault, they told the man to “drop his pants.”
Stabroek News was told that the two toilets in the lock-ups are not working, but there are two cells that detainees use, relieving themselves on the floor. Some of the detainees also relieve themselves in empty food boxes.
The source said the cells-cum-toilets were cleaned by a young man who swept up the faeces and urine from the floor, then threw some water and disinfectant before leaving the area. “This, the disinfectant with the stink smell, just made the place smell worse,” he related.
He said that as he looked around him, and there was not much he could have seen, as the place was very dark with only one light all the way at the front of the lock-ups, he was “shocked to know that I could have found myself in such conditions.” The source said it was a wake up call for him and he could not understand how people survived in such conditions sometimes for weeks at a time.
“In there no one talks quietly because if you do you will be taken advantage of. Everyone shouts and tries to appear authoritative,” he said. The man said he kept to himself, but he was approached by some who wanted to know if he had been allowed to take his cellular phone into the lock-ups
He recalled that he stood for as long as he could and then sunk down to the cold concrete and sat with his back to the wall, before, fortunately for him, he was released.
“The sad thing about it is that a lot of people are kept beyond the 72 hours the police are supposed to detain people. Many of them who don’t have lawyers just remain…”
‘Herding cattle’
The man’s concerns about people being detained for days under such conditions and not being charged are shared by two lawyers who are also politicians.
Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News that it was not only the Brickdam lock-ups that was in a “terrible state”, but all the others including the female and juvenile lock-ups. He said people are kept under conditions fit for cattle and it is as if the police are “herding cattle” when detaining men, women and children.
It is not just the conditions under which detainees are kept, but also what happens behind those walls, which sometimes results in them dying. Only last Monday, James Nelson was found dead in the Brickdam lock-ups and police said he died after constantly banging his head against the walls of the lock-ups.
Nelson’s death prompted Trotman to write a letter to the newspapers in which he stated that it has “highlighted the fact that there is something horribly and murderously wrong happening within the walls of our security forces where prisoners are kept.” He noted that for the year Ramesh Sawh died at the Enmore lock-ups, Surendranauth Boojnauth at the Mahaica lock-ups; while Edwin Niles and Nolan Noble lost their lives at the Georgetown Prison
“The government, the Minister of Home Affairs and the disciplined forces cannot hope to gain the respect and trust of the populace when killing, torture, and covers-up are now the order of the day. We have definitely taken a turn on the road towards autocracy and eventual anarchy and state failure,” Trotman said in his letter.
He told Stabroek News that his party is prepared to join with other political parties and members of civil society to address the issue of the deplorable state of the country’s lock-ups with the aim of getting the government to take some action.
‘Absolutely filthy’
MP Deborah Backer of the PNCR, who is also a lawyer, said her party was also concerned about the state of the lock-ups and would be working to address the issue.
She described most of the lock-ups as being in “absolutely filthy conditions.”
Backer told Stabroek News that many times, because the police are not able to complete their investigations into an incident, persons are detained and placed in the lock-ups.
“This has to be seen against the backdrop that these people have not yet been charged or anything; these people are just citizens who the police are seeking information from….”
Backer said because of her concerns about people being held in the lock-ups sometimes for days with no charges being laid, she recently submitted questions to the National Assembly asking for the number of persons who have been kept for 72 hours and more in lock-ups and not charged.
She pointed out that while the Constitution provides for persons to be held up to 72 hours without charge the police did not have to detain persons for that period if they were still conducting investigations as they could place the persons on station bail and instruct them to return the following day.
“There is no need for them to be kept overnight, but what happens? People are kept for one or more nights in the various police lock-ups throughout the length and breadth of Guyana. Our information is that the lock-ups are in absolutely filthy conditions.”
‘No bath’
Backer told Stabroek News of a client of hers, who is before the courts charged with receiving stolen property. The client was picked up on a Monday and remained in the Alberttown Police Station lock-ups until the Friday when he was eventually taken before the courts.
“He has said to me that from the Monday when he was there to the Friday he had no bath. We are talking now about a citizen of Guyana, a human being because although he is before the courts he is still presumed innocent, who was in the lock-ups for four nights [and did not have a bath].” She said her client told her he was forced to sleep on the concrete or braced against the wall. The attorney-at-law said she was not saying that there should be a bath in the lock-ups, but the detainees should be taken out of the lock-ups and given an opportunity to bathe.
When her client wanted to urinate or defecate, he did it on the floor. He could not say if the lock-ups had a toilet because it was very dark and he did not venture to the back, she related.
“He said I don’t have to tell you about the smell… He said after he came out for about two three days he was still smelling the lock-ups. He said when he went home he bathed and he bathed again, but like this smell was in him.”
She said he told her that there was no light in the lock-ups. Backer said she understood that there were no lights in lock-ups for security reasons as they could be used as possible weapons. She said while she accepts this argument she feels the lock-ups should be built in such a way that external lights can be used. Her client told her that the place was so dark that he did not know when it was day or night and the only time he was allowed out was when officers were counting the detainees.
Backer said another client of hers was kept at the Sparendaam Police Station lock-ups from Monday and when she saw him on the Wednesday, he also said that he had not been allowed to have a bath for those days.
She said when she enquired from the police why he was not allowed to have a bath, the officer said, “‘oh they didn’t take him out to give him a bath? Alright we go see wah he could do’, in a very laid-back manner, I mean these things should be mandatory. These are people who are herded together like animals.”
Backer noted that persons in the lock-ups could be persons who are being investigated for murder, manslaughter, rape or a traffic violation where they were not even at fault. Describing the conditions under which the detainees are kept Backer said: “I mean in the 21st century, we are talking about human rights… It is unconstitutional. It is inhumane. It is repulsive.”
She said she has since asked through the National Assembly whether Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, would facilitate visits to the Brickdam and the Alberttown lock-ups to members of parliament who are interested.
‘Beddings’
Another of her clients was picked up because he could not produce receipts for some television sets he had in his possession and he was placed in the Brickdam lock-ups. He was forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor. But when he started to get seizures, he was allowed to leave the actual lock-ups and was placed behind the counter in front of the lock-ups.
“They brought him out and he said to me ‘Mrs Backer the police were nice… they allowed me family to bring some old bedding and thing’ for him to sleep on. He still had to sleep on the floor…”
She said it was ironic that the government was talking about audio-video links to take testimonies, which she said, in principle, her party supports. “But we are saying let’s prioritise these things. Let’s get our basics right. You can’t be speaking about high technological advances and you have citizens of Guyana who are presumed innocent and who may never be charged, spending two and three nights in a lock-ups, sleeping on a concrete floor, their bedmates being urine and faeces, that can’t be right.
“We are not saying the government is not doing anything but their emphasis is on the wrong things. Like they consistently refuse to raise the salaries of our policemen and women. Yes, they may be getting more guns… but the human resource which is the policeman and the police woman… enough is not being spent…”
Backer said her party was going to address the issue and while it may nauseate some people, “… we are going to do it in a systematic way with the hope that it would benefit people who [may have to spend time in the lock-ups].” She suggested that the lock-ups be rebuilt in such a way that one can look in from the outside and see what’s going on inside.
“That would provide more security for the prisons, it would provide ventilation and then you just have a little cubicle where there is a toilet. We are not saying that they have to get air condition and bunk beds and TVs but you have to provide the basics… because these are human beings.”
She said the lock-ups of the recently built station in Sophia was already deteriorating while noting the habit of the police picking up young men on the East Coast and East Bank and locking them up for the weekend before releasing them without charge. That “can’t help the situation, it is shortsighted,” she said.
Many of the persons who would have had experiences in the lock-ups are reluctant to approach the courts for redress as they are afraid of repercussions by the police and instead are too happy to put the incident behind them.
Backer said she suspected that the lock-ups in other parts of Guyana — not Georgetown or the East Coast — but in the interior locations might be in better conditions, but had no information on them.
GHRA
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) in its 2006 country report had stated that the conditions in “police lock-ups are again deteriorating. GHRA has received complaints about the condition of the Brickdam lock-ups from both police ranks and detained persons.”
The report had also stated that conditions in the Ruimveldt lock-ups, which is used to detain juveniles, remained inadequate, “over-crowded and inhumane. The wooden holding cells were replaced by concrete cells with limited access to light and air, and do not meet basic standards. The GHRA has received complaints of allegations of brutality against young detainees, inflicted both by inmates and the police.”
The association said it had also received several complaints of arbitrary arrest and detention.
“Certain officers detain persons vindictively or at the request of friends out to settle scores.”
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