A modernised prison system is on the government’s to do list but given the unavailability of financing not much can be done in the short term, according to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, who says surveillance is being increased as a short-term measure.
Ramjattan told Stabroek News that the state of the country’s prisons is a cause for concern and the recent escape of two prisoners from the New Amsterdam Prison has called attention to the situation.
“We understand that some of the physical infrastructure of the prisons, like boarded walls rather than concreted walls… is making it accessible. At least the potential is there for people to want to break out,” he said.
Ravindra Samaroo and Lennox Patterson managed to kick out a board from the wall of their cell, which is located on the third floor of the New Amsterdam Prison building. They then used bed sheets to lower themselves down to the ground and then scaled a perimeter fence, which is at least 15ft-high and outfitted with razor wire.
While Samaroo was recaptured, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum yesterday said Patterson remains at large.
Following an attack at the New Amsterdam Prison last year, one of the injured prisoners had told this newspaper that the attackers were outfitted with acid and a cutlass by wardens. The inmate had said that once the money was right, the prisoner could have access to anything he wanted.
Stabroek News was told that the police have already obtained statements as it pertains to the recent escape and will sometime this week be preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice on whether anyone should be criminally charged with assisting the duo to escape. Samaroo has already been placed before the court on a charge of escaping lawful custody.
Ramjattan said government is concerned about the state of the prison system and is working on long term plans to deal with the many problems it faces. However, as a short term measure, he noted, surveillance is being beefed up.
Ramjattan explained that it is going to take “massive resources” to reconstruct the prisons, at least with concrete walls. “We can’t do it. At least not in this budget but we are going to enhance surveillance and security,” he said.
Within recent years, government has made some effort to improve the infrastructure at the Lusignan and Georgetown prisons. With respect to the latter, which is the country’s major correctional facility, the infrastructural works were done for reinforcement as well as for accommodation purposes.
The Georgetown Prison is overpopulated and there continues to be growing concern that there could potentially be a recurrence of a break out on the scale of the 2002 jail break, which was the genesis for an ensuing crime wave in the following two years.
According to Ramjattan, there are prison wardens who are not operating in the best work conditions. “They have indicated to me that they would
like a number of things to better their conditions, of course salaries being one of them. They want a better shift system and we gotta get some more prison wardens just like in police force. I understand they have their own problems there with people too,” he said.
It is unclear how understaffed the prison service is at the moment.
In July, 2012, staff shortage was blamed for the escape of two inmates of the Mazaruni Prison. Later on in that year the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) was given the approval, in keeping with its 2010 to 2015 strategic plan, to hire an additional 38 persons as assistant prison officers.
Following a brutal attack in the New Amsterdam Prison, which led to the hospitalisation of five inmates, it was revealed that there was a staff shortage there.
In a human rights report on Guyana, the US State Department had noted that capacity and resource constraints were a problem and that as of October 31 2011, there were 1,962 prisoners in five facilities that had a combined design capacity of 1,580.
A total of 997 prisoners were in the Georgetown Prison, which was designed to hold 775 inmates up to that period of time, the report had stated.
When asked if there is a particular prison that is of most concern, Ramjattan singled out the Georgetown Prison without hesitation.
He charged that this prison is very amenable for breakouts and added that it is the police and the roads on the outskirts that have “fortified it.”
He said that the prison is such a difficult one to secure and control because it is also overpopulated. In a bid to tighten security and unearth illicit activities and contraband, joint surprise raids are currently conducted. “We have to do what is called a kind of a very technical survey as to what are some of the weaknesses and so on. Some of these things require a more advanced plan…,” he added.
Ramjattan noted that the 2015 budget allocates only a small sum of money for the prison service. He said that whether there will be an increased allocation in the next budget depends on the plan as to “where and when we should have the reinforcement and which prison.”
He recalled that there was a long term plan to relocate the Georgetown Prison from the city. “I don’t know where that plan is right now,” he said, while adding that the prison system will require a fundamental transformation and a “whole host of other things but that will required huge resources.”
Told of previous reports of collusion between wardens at the New Amsterdam facility and prisoners, Ramjattan said that the ministry will be inquiring into the operations at this prison.
“There must be an inquiry that would lead to a better plan because we have to know what are the defects before we can plan for what the remedies should be and indeed the process will start soon for that kind of thing to happen,” he said.
