Two of the three prisoners injured in Thursday’s Camp Street prison blaze remain admitted at the Burn Care Unit at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) but no family members are allowed to see the men.
Andel Forde, Ignatius Franz, and Marcellus Verbeke, survived the tragedy on Thursday at the Camp Street jail where 17 other inmates perished. The fire had started following unrest amongst the prisoners after a raid had seized cellular phones.
While the fire was quelled on Thursday, others prisoners resumed the standoff on Friday which resulted in five more being injured. Shawn Edinborough sustained a pellet wound and so did Nigel Armstrong, Shawn Edwards and Mark Angoy. Joel Jones suffered minor injuries to his head. All five men were admitted to the hospital on Friday and still remain patients in the male ward. However, Stabroek News has learnt that family members are not allowed to visit the prisoners in the burn care unit or in the ward. A source told Stabroek News that according to the Standard Operating Procedures, the prisoners are being treated as if they were still in prison.
When Stabroek News visited the hospital yesterday, all of the prisoners were under heavy guard and no one was allowed to go near to them.
“Given the circumstances of what happened and how badly some of them were injured I think they deserve to see their families at least once,” one person at the hospital related to Stabroek News. “…They are traumatized and they want to see their families,” the source added.
