A manhunt is currently underway for four prisoners, including two murder accused, who escaped from the Holding Bay at the Lusignan Prison during the wee hours of yesterday morning.
In a press release yesterday, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels confirmed the escape, which occurred around 3.46 am, when the inmates scaled the fence.
The inmates are Anthony Padmore, 26, of Ogle Street, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara; Kenraul Perez, 26, of Mabaruma, North West District; Sasnarine Bisnauth, 24, of Lot 22 Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo; and Ganesh Dhanraj, 32, of Parika Facade, East Bank Essequibo.
A Guyana Prison Service release said investigations had revealed that the escape took place during “heavy rainfall.”
The inmates were only discovered to be missing during a roll call at 6.15 am.
The Guyana Police Force was alerted and efforts are being made to apprehend the escapees, the release stated.
Ranks on duty at the time have since been questioned and they are said to be cooperating with the investigation. “So far, no rank has been found culpable,” the release added.
Perez and Dhanraj were on remand for murder, while Bisnauth was on remand for robbery and armed robbery and Padmore was serving a three-year sentence for trafficking of cannabis.
Perez is accused of murdering Berbice labourer Tribhowan Singh, whose lifeless body was discovered with stab wounds on a rice farm in February, 2018.
The murder is said to have stemmed from a land dispute. Perez was only charged in relation to the crime in January of this year.
Dhanraj is accused of strangling his 29-year-old wife, Dhanwantie Ram, in April, 2017. He was held days after, despite his efforts to evade the police and was charged with the murder.
Lack of vigilance
The escape has once again raised concerns about the level of security being provided at the prisons, particularly the Lusignan Prison, which has seen a number of escapes in the recent past.
In an invited comment yesterday, de facto Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News that lack of vigilance by the officers on duty at the time is likely the cause of the escape.
He said that it is clear that the officers were not as alert as they should have been and were possibly asleep when the inmates escaped.
Ramjattan added that there is a need for more professional officers to prevent such incidents from recurring. “Ultimately we would have to, as a country, try as best to secure professionalism more in the officers and ranks,” he said.
He added that “proper” infrastructure and prisoners as inside informants would also aid in preventing escapes. “…You have to have substantial constructions to prevent these things from happening and then extraordinary alert officers and ranks that would prevent this from happening and of course you would have to have prisoners within the prison system who are going to be informers. Generally, in every prison regime, you have informers who would say they are planning a breakout and inform and so on, that also helps,” Ramjattan related.
When questioned as to why two murder accused were being housed in the holding bay area of the prison, Ramjattan said he was informed that they were scheduled to appear in court soon.
However, apart from the fact, he said measures are normally in place to “scatter” the murder accused. “….Sometimes those murder accused, sometimes they have to be scattered around the place because when you are a murder accused you start thinking all kind of things…we have quite a few of the prisoners, a couple hundred of them that have been charged with murder so it is not that we are going to put all the murder accused in one place,” Ramjattan said.
Ramjattan said the completion of the expansion of the Mazaruni Prison is expected to aid in preventing an overcrowding in the prison system.
While this was expected to be done in a few months from now, Ramjattan stressed about a possible delay in the construction process in light of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Upon the completion of the investigation, he said a report will be compiled and necessary actions will be taken against those who are found responsible for the escape.
