Brickdam lockups to be fully operational this week – Commissioner Greene

Mar 29, 2010 News

With plans on stream for the return of prisoners to the rehabilitated Brickdam lockups, the facility is set to become fully operational before the end of this week, following its commissioning last Friday.

Ahead of the August last year commencement of the rehabilitation works, the inmates of the Brickdam lockups were relocated to various temporary holding areas, including the Providence, East Ruimveldt and Golden Grove lockups.

The refurbished holding area of the Brickdam lockups.

The facility, with its completely overhauled interior, is in a most suitable state to accept its former patrons, said Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene, who revealed to this newspaper yesterday that plans were engaged to have the largest batch of displaced prisoners return.

“The plan is that sometime today (yesterday), the prisoners from the Golden Grove lockups, which has been accommodating the bulk of the prisoners, will return to the Brickdam lockups,” Commissioner Greene divulged. Plans to have the other prisoners relocated will follow eventually, as it becomes feasible.

And according to him, the overhauled facility is of such a design that it cannot and will not accommodate more persons than it was intended to hold. According to Project Consultant, Noel James, of N. J. Consultancy, who spearheaded the rehabilitation of the lockups, as part of the project, 15 cells were completely overhauled and a total of 42 metal bunks were remedied. It was against this background that Greene assured that the number of inmates will not surpass the stated capacity of the facility. The holding area of the facility, he said will, only accommodate inmates when there is a need to have the cells cleaned or for other reasons which will require their removal from the cells.

And since the lockups has been regarded by Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, as an integral part of law enforcement at the commissioning of the facility, he said that caution must be taken in the process of detaining persons. He asserted that the Standing Orders of the Guyana Police Force are very clear about the conditions under which persons are to be held at Police lockups, be they healthy, sick, or foreign body swallowers.

“Guidance, with respect to confinement of prisoners in lock-ups, property found on prisoners, searching and re-searching of prisoners, examination of lockups, visits to prisoners in lock-ups, drunken prisoners, are all carefully and well documented in the said Standing Orders. It would be strange therefore, if not inexplicable, if these Standing Orders were to be honoured in the breach by Ranks at any Police Station,” the Minister noted.

And since many citizens deem “locking-up as a sense of justice,” police ranks must use their better judgment when exercising their roles in all matters, he warned. This is especially crucial since in the eyes of many, the Police, be they on duty in the streets or at a Police Station, remain a symbol of safety and security.

“Anyone who attempts to disturb or disrupt the safety and security of one or all will be considered an undesirable or a deviant in the eyes of society and must be put away first, in accordance with the Police Act and secondly in accordance with Laws associated with the Administration of Justice.”

“The truth is, it is not justice per say but good or better judgment which the populace seeks at all times from the Police,” the Minister added.

However, he revealed that the Police must of necessity exercise some discretion in the conduct of their duties as not only do they decide which available methods are most useful in a given situation, but they must also decide which laws to enforce and when. But even under these circumstances, Minister Rohee informed that it is not unusual to find from time to time exuberant police ranks who, while enforcing the law to the letter, end up jeopardising the public image of the force, thus bringing it unnecessarily into disrepute.

“People who generally obey the law resent excessive force and strictness. Moreover, since laws as well as policies and procedures tend to be ambiguous, police ranks according to the experts, often make their own decisions instantly, under stress and often without advice in matters that only years of litigation may ultimately resolve. It is for these reasons that care must be taken when issuing and executing Force Orders less the actions of the Police by their very nature only serve to bring the force into disrepute.”

According to the Minister, too often reports are received at the Ministry of Home Affairs of wrongful arrests and detention as well as the wrongful invasion of people’s privacy due to police ranks turning up at wrong addresses.

He recounted that it was only recently that there was such an occurrence at the Residence of Mr. & Mrs. Harold Carryl of Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara, a situation to which the Minister has expressed a profound and heartfelt apology.

“I wish to offer a public apology to these two senior citizens who are both retired Head Teachers and have given to this country over 60 years of service in the teaching profession. I look forward to both the Commissioner of Police and the Commander of “D” Division following my example.”