Jerry Baird is living a “ruined life” that he says is being made more complicated by the prison administration, which has failed to compensate him for serious injuries he sustained in December 2014.
Baird’s right foot was severed just below the knee by the blade of a weeding machine, while he and other inmates of the Georgetown Prison were cleaning up the Bourda Cemetery.
Though Baird spoke of getting little help, Officer in Charge of the Georgetown Prison Kevin Pilgrim told Stabroek News that the prison administration has assisted the former prisoner financially on three occasions. That money he told Stabroek News was to help the 28-year-old man to deal with medical expenses.
According to Pilgrim, Baird visits the Prison Headquarters occasionally and the issue of further assistance is being addressed.
Contacted for a comment yesterday Director of Prisons Carl Graham also indicated that the matter is being addressed.
Last Friday, Baird appeared depressed and he begged the media to air his story. At the time he was standing with the assistance of crutches behind the police barricades at the corners of Camp and Hadfield streets while the prison unrest was ongoing.
Baird, who uses the crutches to move around, said that he wants compensation for his injury and a prosthetic leg to make his life a little easier.
“Nothing, nothing ain’t doing fuh me,” he told Stabroek News as he stressed that he is a young man with his whole life ahead of him.
Baird had been sentenced to three years in prison for the possession of a pound of narcotics. He completed his sentence in January last year. The mishap occurred on December 16, 2014 and saw him being hospitalized for three weeks at the Georgetown Hospital.
Prisoners nearing the end of their sentences, who are well-behaved and show signs of leadership and reform, are chosen for the prison’s social programme where they are allowed to work and earn, but only under the supervision of prison officers. This work can be anything from clean-up projects to carpentry.
Baird said that as his sentence neared completion, he began working. “We does get some of the money [and] they [the prison] does get some of the money,” he said.
He recalled that he and other prisoners were taken to the Bourda Cemetery to weed one morning. As he was weeding between tombs the blade from his machine broke. He said that broken blade “pitch pon me foot.” His resulting injury was a severed right leg.
He was rushed to the hospital unconscious and when he woke he received the shocking news that he had lost a leg. He said that the medical officials told him that nothing could have been done to save the leg.
Baird said that after he was discharged from hospital, he was returned to prison where he remained for the duration of his sentence.
According to Baird, despite his many visits to the prison, no one is hinting that compensation will be given to him.
The clearly distressed man told this newspaper that he had visited Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels, who has since been sent on leave in wake of the deadly prison fire, and Director of Prisons Carl Graham. He said neither addressed his concerns.
“They ain’t say nothing to me. When I come they tell me I gotta write up some paper and sent it back to the ministry fuh see if dem gon get money for me,” he said, as others nearby prompted him to continue telling his story.
He said he was dissatisfied with the reaction of these two officials and called for something to be done for him.
“I ask them if dem could get the cork foot fuh me. Me ain’t got no problem with that. Cork foot dear. I been and price one de other day is $195,000 fuh it,” he stressed.
The man said he is looking for compensation but the “cork foot” could be helpful.
