The relatives of Colin Jones, who was committed to stand trial in the High Court for the 2009 attempted Supreme Court arson, yesterday complained bitterly that he was being treated inhumanely by prison and police personnel.
“Yesterday we received an unknown call that Colin was being taken to the hospital because he had tried to burn a mattress and had eaten a light bulb,” his sister Coleen Jones said. “When we rushed down to the prison a warden said he was not going to be taken to the hospital that he was okay. We ain’t believe; we waited and you see when he come out if you see wuh dey do wid he not even a dog puppy you would treat so. Blood and battering all over.”
Numerous efforts to contact Director of the Prisons Dale Erskine for comment on the relatives’ claims proved futile.
A group of angry relatives visited Stabroek News demanding justice for the prisoner.
They further informed that the police were called to take Jones to the hospital and that they dealt him several blows about the body even as he lay in the back of the vehicle.
At the Georgetown Public Hospital, Jones was examined by a doctor since officials stated that it was hospital policy that a doctor could evaluate a patient’s condition with one close relative, or in the case of prisoners, two duty officers.
They said that several police officers stormed the Accident and Emergency Unit and when they were told that they could not be in the room during the examination, they simply took Jones back to the Camp Street prison.
His family is convinced that he is now of unsound mind and that he should be psychologically evaluated. “He trip out in prison, man. He ain’t too right upstairs and even though his lawyer asking for him to be evaluated nobody ain’t taking him,” his sister said.
The man holds a long criminal record. In December 2011, Jones was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and fined for cultivating marijuana, illegal gun and ammunition possession.
He was also arraigned on a series of other charges including discharging a loaded firearm, attempted murder and murder.
He is one of five men, the others being Randy Mars, Basil Morgan, Anthony Watson and Jahfar Simpson, committed to stand trial for attempted arson of the Supreme Court.
The men, in November 2009, reportedly went on what was then referred to as a “terror rampage”.
During this attack, fire was also allegedly set to the Ministry of Health and rounds discharged at the Brickdam Police Station.
