Officials on duty at the New Amsterdam prison yesterday morning discovered a number of contraband items including a quantity of narcotics and alcohol in the prison yard.
Director of Prisons (ag) Gladwin Samuels confirmed that the discovery was made around 10.30am yesterday.
Samuels said that the items: two parcels containing narcotics, eighteen packs of cigarettes, twelve packs of bamboo, a plastic bottle containing EL Dorado 5 year old rum and a quantity of zip lock bags are suspected to have been tossed over the fence and into the prison yard.
They were discovered next to a chicken pen, he said.
Attempts to smuggle items into the various prison facilities across the country have become a regular occurrence.
On Tuesday around 2.30am, ranks on duty at the Lusignan prison managed to avert a similar attempt.
Samuels had said that ranks observed an individual at the north eastern section of the holding area. The individual, he had said, attempted to throw a parcel wrapped in a plastic bag over the fence.
However, the individual’s efforts were thwarted after alert ranks fired at him. The individual, nonetheless, managed to escape, leaving the parcel behind.
Ranks, upon recovering the parcel, found ten smaller parcels containing a camouflage hat and a pair of short pants, 1002 grammes of cannabis, a large quantity of tobacco leaves, four cellphones without SIM cards, one charger, one earpiece and thirty-three packets of Bristol cigarettes
On Friday, Stabroek News reported that the Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan was angered by the frequent cases of smuggling of illicit items into the prison.
“…You get angry at what’s happening, you feel a sense of despair, but really it just goes to show the quality of some of our prison officers that allow that to happen”, Ramjattan told reporters on Friday when questioned about his thoughts on the situation.
In that interview, the Minister disclosed that he has been engaged in talks with the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan for the allocation of funds to purchase scanners for the entrances of these facilities to enhance security.
A few weeks ago, ranks from the Joint Services carried out a three-hour search of the Lusignan Prison and found improvised weapons, cellphones, cellphone batteries, phone chargers, phone cards, cannabis, cannabis seeds and a cannabis plant, among other items.
Two Saturdays ago, it was reported that the Police in `C’ Division had been summoned, following the discovery of a cutlass and a knife outside of the north eastern fence of the holding bay at the Lusignan Prison.
