Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that not much can be done at this point to rectify the situation at the Lusigan Prison and added that though he sought help from various international agencies, he was turned down.
At an Alliance for Change (AFC) Local Government Elections (LGE) press conference yesterday, Ramjattan spoke on the steps being taken to improve the conditions at the Lusignan Prison, which fuelled recent rioting and saw the escape of three prisoners who are still on the run.
“We can’t put them in circumstances outside of Lusignan…Its 558 prisoners we are talking about and that is caused, of course, by the inmates burning down Camp Street. But, as best as possible, in the circumstances, we are trying. We did facilities at the Lusignan holding bays to ensure their security and of course it is not the best. It is, at most, a half-scald situation but in my circumstances, I don’t know what better I can do,” Ramjattan said.
He further explained that he has reached out to many international organisations and has made them aware of the circumstances but said his funding requests for the construction of prisons were rejected.
“We know the difficulties we have… I went internationally too to ask for a loan. [The] IMF (International Monetary Fund) said they don’t give loan for prisons. World Bank said they not giving loans for prisons, IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) said no way they don’t give loans for prisons. So I had to tell them, you are making my police force better to increase the people that we arrest and put in prisons and you are not helping out by giving me a loan for prison,” he added, while highlighting that they had to take money out of the treasury to fund the Mazaruni Prison repairs, despite having other more important priorities to attend to, such as the severance payment for sugar workers and the increasing of teachers’ salaries.
Ramjattan said that the Mazaruni Prison, once completed, will increase inmate capacity, while the Camp Street Prison, with its steel cells, will be able to accommodate another 140 prisons once rehabilitated.
Ramjattan admitted that the situation is very difficult but said the only thing they can do right now is ensure that the conditions, including the food and water supply that the prisoners are receiving on a daily basis, are up to standard.
“I have given instruction to the DoP [Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels] but he has indicated that they have been getting good food and water. We will try to better the water and of course we gave them the pallet on which to rest the mattresses for sleeping during the night and they have burned about half the amounts of mattresses we’ve given them and the pallets,” Ramjattan related, while adding that the situation is “an extraordinarily difficult” one and that he doesn’t have any other suggestions that could ensure the safety of the prisoners and the citizens at the same time.
“So look, this thing gives me headache every night… Unless somebody come up with an idea that we bring in a boat and we can hire it for, I don’t know how much thousands US dollars per day, and the boat is so made that it can hold these people [prisoners] inside and we can have it out in the ocean. But we don’t get money for those kinds of things and people must understand the predicament,” Ramjattan added.
