PRISON RAGE

Mar 05, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Certain things have to be ruled out as the cause of the prison riot this past week which has so far claimed seventeen lives. The death toll can rise based on the burns received by other prisoners.
The Georgetown Prison has been overflowing for many decades now. The remand population was at one stage fifty per cent more than it was last Wednesday when the troubles started at the prisons.
From the numbers given by the prison authorities, the population of the prison has actually been reduced. The overcrowding therefore cannot be the cause of last Wednesday’s riots. If overcrowding was the cause then there would have been riots before.
Overcrowding could not have been the problem because the riots actually took place in the capital block where remand prisoners for serious crimes are located. This block is not overcrowded.
So what caused the problems? The problems were caused because the prisoners in the capital block were deprived of unauthorized privileges. The riots of this past week occurred just after the prison authorities had reportedly seized a number of cellular phones and marijuana. Now this would have discommoded the inmates, especially those who had grown accustomed to smoking their dope and making their calls.
The comfortable life of the prisoner was disturbed and they became enraged. There had to be a ring leader, possibly someone who has been in the system long and running a cellular phone ring and a drug ring from within the prison. This is the likely cause of the madness that took place this past week and which has seen some seventeen persons dead.
The actual reasons for the deaths need to be investigated. There have been reports circulating that a door was closed. There has also been a report that the prisoners refused to cooperate with the wardens who were trying to get them out. The question is why when the prisoners realized that they were being suffocated by smoke, did they not break down the doors which they had barricaded? Surely they were not planning on committing mass suicide by locking themselves in permanently. The question is whether they were locked in or whether they placed themselves in a situation where they could not get out?
Prisoners are not stupid. They are street-smart. They are not likely to have put themselves in danger of being burnt alive. Something went wrong or somebody did something wrong. The investigation will clear that up.
The prisoners know how to exploit a situation. The government has to be careful in dealing with these prisoners that they do not show weakness because these guys know how to sense a weakness and how to exploit it.
The situation right now at the prisons is fragile. Lot 12 is like a pack of cards. It can come crumbling down given the situation there at the moment. There is tension in the air and the security is seriously compromised. The prisoners know this.
Serious damage was done on Friday to the prison cells. A major block in the prison is now unsafe. The entire prison is unsafe for wardens to operate in. There is a crisis at Lot 12 Camp Street and you can bet your last dollar that the prisoners will capitalize on that situation.
The government has to respect the human rights of prisoners but they must not allow themselves to be manipulated. If there is anything that the prisoners are good at it is manipulating people. They also are experts at manipulating fear and the prison guards will feel unsafe. The ratio of prison guards to prisoners was already at dangerously low levels. The prison authorities were finding it difficult to recruit guards. The job is poor paying and having to deal with some of those criminals can be mentally draining for guards. A great many guards are going to be scared to go back to work.
In the meantime, the government cannot be soft with the present prison population. They have to be firm because just as how the prisoners had cellular phones, they could have used those phones to contact persons outside to complain about conditions in the prison. No such reports reached the media suggesting strongly that the riots of this week had nothing to do with conditions at the prison.

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PRISON RAGE

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PRISON RAGE

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