The Story within the Story…Camp Street jail and our penal system

Mar 06, 2016 News

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The Story within the Story
 
By Leonard Gildarie
I was tuned in to another major concern of mine for this week, but the events on Thursday at the

Camp Street jail changed all that.
All too well, Guyana knows that infamous Mash Day breakout more than a decade ago that sparked a crime spree that still has Guyana reeling.
I turn back to the unfortunate sequence of events that led to the death of 17 persons on Thursday. It was described as one of the worst tragedies in the country since, maybe, the Jim Jones mass deaths in late 1970s.
Regardless of the crimes the accused in the remand section have been charged with, the law is clear…they are innocent until proven guilty.
I have said it before and will say it again – we are losing too many of our citizens to unnatural causes. We are already dealing with migration, with some of our best minds leaving the shores.

OUR PENAL SYSTEM HAS TO BE REVAMPED
Our penal system has to be revamped; there is no doubt about it. There will be a few individuals who are intent on not working and preferring a life of crime. The system has a way of handling these.
I am aware that there are a number of critical reports of our jail system which made a number of recommendations. One proposal, I am told, is the selling of the Camp Street property and the construction of new facility elsewhere, away from the city, from the proceeds. Of course, there is a critical and logistical need for a facility to be nearby the courts in light of the security concerns.
Yesterday, several schools and even diplomatic offices closed their doors because of security concerns. Several streets around the prison remained cordoned off. It is not the ideal situation. It was an agitated crowd that gathered yesterday as reports came out of more disturbances. There were upset families present also…people who lost their sons, brothers and husbands.
We are seeing arguments by critics that the situation at Camp Street is a festering one; that there are rackets being run in the prison, from marijuana sales to all kinds of prohibited items. How are the prisoners getting these items and drugs? What about phones? We hear of rackets being run in which prison officers pilfer ration supplies. Again, these are all what is being reported and the complaints are coming again and again.
On Wednesday, it is being reported, authorities carried out searches, seizing numerous cell phones and other illegal items in various sections of the prison.
There are also unconfirmed reports of prison officers retreating after angry prisoners started advancing and hurling items. The officers were reportedly not properly equipped. Were the proper emergency protocols followed after it became clear that a situation was emerging?
Again, there are still a number of unanswered questions as it relates to the circumstances under which 17 remand prisoners died and some were badly burnt.
The inquiry announced by the government is expected to shed some light on whose fault it was, and measures to ensure no recurrence. Again, it is what is being reported.
What I do know is that – similar to what other developed and developing countries are doing – we have to relook at our programmes of re-integration for persons who have served time.
Too many times we hear of repeat offenders, some of who have been charged time and again, returning to their old ways. There must be programmes developed to teach convicted prisoners a trade. I know quite a few persons who wrote CXCs at Camp Street and came out, started a family and are currently in respectable jobs.

UNDERFUNDED?
An inquiry is about to start. Is the prison system underfunded? Are we just custodians for a number of dangerous prisoners, under inhumane circumstances, until their release?
The prison at Camp Street has the capacity for 600 prisoners but is currently housing 984, almost four hundred in excess!
The simmering situation at the prisons cannot be delinked also from the delays in the court system. Too often we hear of trials being delayed and cases being postponed.
Any reforms of the penal systems will have to go hand in hand with what is transpiring at the courts. Do we need more judges and magistrates?
We have jails in Berbice, at least three in Demerara, and one along the Essequibo River, at Mazaruni.
Similar to the United States where, depending on the gravity of the offence, prisoners are sent to particular levels of penitentiaries, maybe Guyana should in the long term start looking at the lessons to be learnt.
Admittedly, as consecutive governments have said, the jails are not five-star hotels…and should not be. It should be a place for reflective thinking and reform. However, the persons there are human beings too, with rights as enshrined in the laws.
We should, as part of our developmental trajectory, strive not to be regarded as a barbaric nation.
The inquiry should lay bare some of the causes of the problems that exploded on Thursday with the ultimate prices paid. How we recover, what we do as a government and as a people to ensure there is no repeat, will be crucial.
There should never be a repeat. It is a stain on the nation’s history.

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