In an effort to address overcrowding in the jails and to improve conditions, a new facility will be constructed at the Lusignan Prison and upon completion it will house approximately one thousand prisoners.
This disclosure was made by Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels at an event on Monday as he highlighted steps taken by the Government to ensure that the longstanding problem is remedied.
According to Samuels, the project is currently at the design stage. He said hopefully the contract will be awarded before the end of this year.
During a visit to the Lusignan Prison in August, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn had expressed concern at the “unsatisfactory” conditions at the facility and had said that improvements will be done.
The holding capacity of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) significantly decreased over the last four years with destruction caused by fires in 2017 and 2020 at the Camp Street and Lusignan prisons, respectively.
On July 12th, 2020, eleven inmates were injured and hundreds more dislocated when prisoners set fire to a dorm at the Lusignan Prison following a drug seizure.
The entire dormitory building and a section of the Administrative building were gutted by the fire.
The fire was the third major one at a prison facility in just over four years. On March 3rd 2016, prisoners set fire to the capital offences section of the Camp Street Prison and 17 prisoners died. On July 9th, 2017 the entire Camp Street facility was burnt to the ground by prisoners.
The current inmate population at the Lusignan Prison is 1323, with around 400 being accommodated in the Holding Bay.
Samuels on Monday said that the Guyana Prison System is currently housing a total population of 1884, which is 500 persons over its capacity.
Taking into consideration the Holding Bay at the Lusignan Prison, which was not structurally designed as a prison, Samuels said the prison population is over capacity by 561 prisoners or 29.7%.
The Government is currently working to accelerate the US$8 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Support for the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) programme to reduce the prison population in Guyana. The programme’s aim is to reduce the amount of prisoners who are pre-trial detainees and increase the use of alternative sentencing.
The IDB-funded project, which commenced in 2017, is managed by the Ministry of Legal Affairs.
Additionally, Samuels said that works are also ongoing at two other facilities; Mazaruni and Camp Street and should be completed early next year.
Upon completion, the two facilities are expected to house close to 300 inmates altogether.
Samuels explained that while authorities are not expecting a growth in the prison population, consideration is being given to those who are already incarcerated and newcomers.
“….What we are catering for is to ensure that those persons who are currently in prison and those who are likely to come that they can be housed under better conditions and be afforded with adequate opportunities for rehabilitation programmes,” he said.
