Prisons Director Dale Erskine yesterday said the prisoner who was attacked with a piece of wood by a fellow inmate in the Georgetown Prison on Monday is in a stable condition.
Randy Joseph’s family, however, remains upset that he has not been taken to the hospital for treatment, after losing “plenty, plenty blood”.
Erskine said yesterday that Joseph, who is on remand in an armed robbery case, was in a stable condition. He added that it was “likely” that his attacker, who is also an armed robbery accused, was either in lock down “or some other prison”.
This newspaper was reliably informed that the attacker, who was reportedly part of a gang that committed armed robberies in the Aranka, Cuyuni, area, was moved from the facility.
Erskine added that he was aware of a previous altercation between the two prisoners and he stated that while they were separated, “they met up in the yard”. The two prisoners, from reports, were involved in a fight on Saturday night and the attacker was wounded by Joseph. Monday’s incident was apparently a retaliatory attack.
Meanwhile, Joseph’s mother, Hazel Sancho, told Stabroek News yesterday that she was eventually allowed to see her son on Monday afternoon, after she refused to remove from the entrance to the prison. She said his face was very pale, owing to a loss of blood. He had a wound on his head which was stitched, she said, and a wound on his right hand which was bandaged.
Sancho said that Joseph, 27, of Buxton, East Coast Demerara, said he was treated in the infirmary and he was not taken to the hospital. “He lose a lot, a lot of blood. I don’t know how much but I know is plenty by the amount of water they (prison warden) were washing down de place with. When he give we he clothes yesterday afternoon if you see how much blood de jersey and he pants had,” she said.
She added that because of the ordeal Joseph went through, she did not press him for details.
The woman, however, maintained that her son should still have been taken to the hospital for follow-up treatment.
According to a woman who witnessed the attack during a visit to a relative at the facility, Joseph’s attacker stabbed away at him, while continually saying that he was going to kill him.
The wardens, who were present, she added, had to arm themselves with pieces of wood and it took at least three of them to “hold down” the attacker and “paste he to de corna.”
Sancho, who was standing outside the prison when the attack occurred, recalled hearing her son screaming.
