In two separate incidents, four juveniles from the Sophia Holding Centre last week escaped and have not yet be found, triggering the swift termination of a teacher at the facility.
The Guyana Police Force is yet to publicly comment on the escapes.
Since last week the Communications Unit of the Guyana Police Force was asked about the escape but it has said nothing to date.
The Juvenile Holding Centre is managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and its Director is Joan Ann Edghill.
This newspaper tried contacting the Crime Chief and calls to his phone went unanswered.
In response to messages sent to him, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn replied, “Police are working on the issue!!!”
Sources told the Stabroek News that three teens, two boys and a girl, escaped last Wednesday and another boy who was placed in solitary confinement escaped the night after.
Security camera footage revealed that the three teens, who were all accused of murder, left after picking up the keys to the gate of a classroom, located on the upper flat of the two storey facility, and jumping from the top of the stairs across the fence and unto the area that leads to the Sophia Exhibition Centre, a source revealed. It was a cleaner of the facility who saw the group as one was making the jump and she raised an alarm.
The source said security camera footage showed that during the wee hours of the next day a 17-year-old who was in solitary confinement made good his escape even as two police officers stationed at the centre slept.
“Teaching is held in one classroom. It is L shaped so there is a block in vision for a part of that classroom but there is a police officer on duty at all times. They took a key that was left on a desk and opened the grill and made good their escape,” the source explained.
While an alarm was raised, a source said that the “senior female officer on duty could not run to keep up the youths, so the police reinforcement was called in.”
Following preliminary investigations, blame was laid on the juvenile correctional teacher and his service was terminated the next day but took effect from yesterday. The teacher was accused of “negligence” and “failure to secure the keys”.
It is not the first time juveniles have escaped from the facility, which has faced criticism over the conditions under which the children have been kept. Most of the juveniles, some in holding since 14 years, are kept until they are 18 years old and then transferred to the country’s prisons, where they are integrated into the adult prison population.
The last escape was on June of 2020, when twelve juveniles had escaped, although all had been recaptured.
Investigations and a report from that escape was used as a means for “reformative changes,” Benn previously said. Those changes saw at least one teacher having to be present every day of the week, where in the past the students were locked in cells over the entire weekend.
