The section of the Camp Street prison where the deadly fire occurred in March should be renovated and turned into a learning centre equipped with a library for prisoners, the recently conclude Prison Commission of Inquiry (CoI) has recommended.
The inquiry was set up at the behest of President David Granger to probe the circumstances of the March 3 fire which claimed the lives of 17 prisoners.
A recommendation has also been made that the prison should be moved from its central Georgetown location.
The CoI report which was submitted to the president last month recommended that the Capital A Block be renovated and named Centre of Learning and Reconciliation.
“It should have a good library with appropriate technology and other supporting material to aid inmates to develop themselves,” the report said.
According to the report the non-completion of the new brick prison at that facility has placed unnecessary burden on the overcrowded Georgetown Prison.
This prison, when completed, will have the capacity to house an additional 250 prisoners.
It pointed out too that the infrastructure for cooking quality food is “grossly unsatisfactorily and notwithstanding the food may be palatable, the manner in which it is prepared with firewood will always be a recipe for protests by prisoners. It is in an archaic state.”
The report recommended that the construction of the new prison at Lusignan be completed as well as the upgrading of the Mazaruni facilities to improve the prison’s capacity to hold prisoners under humane conditions.
The report called for a review of the internal walls of high security blocks so as to avoid prisoners breaking through them along with a more effective system of lighting in dormitories to be introduced to avoid tampering and turning off of lights by prisoners in divisions.
