The Ministry of Home Affairs has invited bids for $1.071b in works on the Lusgnan Prison which has been the scene of multiple escapes, riots and protests over conditions in recent years.
Three new prison modules which are expected to hold a total of 600 prisoners are to be built.
According to an amended invitation for bids in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, three structures are to be reconstructed. Each of these it is estimated will cost $357m. Bids for the work close on April 29th, 2021 at 9 am.
In the budget presented on February 12 this year, Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh has said that work will commence this year on the three blocks to house 600 prisoners.
On January 28 this year, while arguing against an opposition motion on the Lusignan Prison, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn had pointed at the poor conditions that the government had found at the penitentiary upon taking office in August last year.
He told the National Assembly that he had “pointed out that the prisoners were living in worse conditions than the pigs and chickens we have out there”.
Benn said then that two new dormitories were being constructed and the government was working towards establishing five new prison modules.
By the end of this year, he said, three of those prison modules which will house 600 persons are expected to be in place. “So what we will do in one year, you were unable to do in five years,” Benn told the House.
