Director of Prisons Carl Graham said the Georgetown Prison was “calm” yesterday, while some of the damage caused during the previous three days of unrest has been rectified.
Graham told Stabroek News that there was no further protests by prisoners, who last Friday assured Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan and Minister of State Joseph Harmon that they would cease protest action so that their complaints could be addressed.
Multiple fires had been lit in a section of the Capital Offences building as part of a protest over various grievances but there were fatal results on Thursday, when 17 prisoners died. A Commission of Inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the prisoner’s deaths, while on Friday Ramjattan announced some concessions to prisoners, including addressing lengthy delays in court matters. He also announced that the Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels had been sent on leave in wake of allegations being made by prisoners against him.
It was following a standoff on Friday that the two ministers visited the location since despite the deaths, the prisoners were adamant that they would continue protesting in various forms until they met with members of government.
During the standoff, members of the Joint services were forced to use tear gas and fired pellets to get the prisoners out of the Capital Offences building, where a fire had been lit around 7am.
The prisoners also managed to kick out an already weakened wall located at the southern side of the building. Some prisoners were seen on the roof of a building in the compound holding various implements.
Seven prisoners were subsequently rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for injuries they sustained. Two of them were said to be in critical condition. Five prison officers were also taken to the hospital for treatment for inhalation of tear gas.
At least five prisoners are presently hospitalised and are under guard. Stabroek News has been unable to speak with their relatives.
Graham said yesterday that only minor repairs have been completed so far and he assured that work will continue until all have been completed
In addition to the kicked out wall, Stabroek News was told that the interior of the Capital A section was badly damaged. Mattresses will have to be replaced and broken beds fixed. There are also reports of a hole in the wall separating Capital A and Capital B.
Meanwhile, back in 2011, the AFC in its elections manifesto had promised the construction of a modern prison, with “new, appropriate and humane facilities for women, juveniles and remand prisoners outside of the city,” Ramjattan, who is also the AFC leader, has since said that this is not achievable in the short terms because such a venture would be very expensive.
In outlining its plans for the prisons, the party had stated that it would allow more prisoners to do community work, such as up-keeping the surroundings in the cemetery and provide a nominal stipend at the end of their term for good behaviour.
The AFC said too that it would mandate a jail term of life in prison after three convictions for violent felonies
The APNU, in its manifesto for the same elections, had also spoken about building a modern prison and extending its vision to include the beefing up of the staff strength and the installation of “adequate monitoring devices and warning technology in prisons.”
APNU spoke of introducing a constructive regime of activities geared to occupy prisoners’ time beneficially such as learning useful skills. Also it said that it will provide sufficient and human material resources to relieve overcrowding and modernise the Georgetown Prison, and expand the Mazaruni Prison.
Currently, the Georgetown Prison has no sprinkler system and in the event of a fire all the wardens have is a hose, sand buckets and fire extinguishers. The prison is also cramped as it houses over 900 inmates, which is roughly 300 more prisoners than it was built to accommodate.
