Erskine says no ‘racket’ at Camp Street jail

Oct 04, 2008 News

…prisoner who slipped out of jail may have pretended to be

carpenter

Director of Prisons Dale Erskine believes that the recent escape of robbery accused Teon Smith from the Georgetown Prisons resulted from negligence by some personnel, rather than collusion on their part.

Insisting that there is no ‘racket’ at the penitentiary, Erskine said that Smith, called Teon Branch, may have managed to slip past the guards at the main gate because he was not known to them.

He believes that they may have mistaken him for one of several carpenters who were working in the prisons at the time.

“They ought not to have made that mistake, and whoever passed him out was negligent,” Erskine said.
But Erskine said that he has been unable to identify the prison warders who let the inmate out.

Smith is being detained at the Brickdam Police Station, and the Prison Director said officials at the prison will have to wait until he returns to question him.

He said that prison officials will be conducting their own separate investigation into the incident.
Erskine told Kaieteur News that Branch and other prisoners were brought to the penitentiary on Thursday.

They were placed in the Reception Area, some 20 to 50 metres from the main gate, in preparation to being ‘admitted’ into the prison.

At the time, several carpenters were also conducting repair works in the area. But, according to Erskine, some of the prisoners began to complain that Smith was ‘smelly.’ “He was unkempt and smelly, so they separated him from the others,” the Prison Director said.

According to Erskine, when the prison personnel eventually went to register Smith into the prison, they realised that he had disappeared. They then searched the prison compound, and eventually realised that he was gone.

He said that prison officials immediately notified officials at the Alberttown Police Station about Smith’s escape.

Kaieteur News understands that Smith has since told police investigators that he slipped out of the prison by pretending to be one of the carpenters who were at the penitentiary at the time.

Teon Smith, 18, of Annandale, East Coast Demerara, ended up on the streets Thursday, just a few hours after he was remanded to prison by acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson on 14 counts of robbery under arms committed against several business places, including Multi Tech Lab at New Market Street, Games Shop at the City Mall, Game Shop at Alberttown, Munckhins at Lamaha Street, and the Genesis Pet Shop.
Police had arrested the accused on Monday at the scene of an armed robbery.

After his bizarre escape from the Georgetown Prisons, police received information that the suspect was in the West Ruimveldt area. They went to the area, where they apprehended the suspect.

When questioned, the remanded prisoner reportedly told police that he simply walked out of the prison.
Police contacted officials at the prison and informed them about the arrest.

A few minutes later, three senior officers from the prison went to the Brickdam Police Station to uplift the prisoner.

However, police refused to hand him over, after explaining that they were investigating how Smith managed to secure his temporary freedom.

The accused is expected to make his next court appearance on October 9, before the said magistrate. According to sources at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, the accused may be slapped with another charge — escaping from lawful custody.

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