Violent juveniles make life hell for ranks at Holding Centre

Sep 12, 2016 News

---

– policeman attacked with ‘jucka,’ plastic bags with urine, faeces thrown at ranks   

The Juvenile Holding Centre is a potential powder keg, where violent juveniles attack ranks with makeshift weapons and bags of faeces, and where minors who have committed petty offences are housed with others who are charged with murder.
Ranks who work there believe that while eyes are on the overcrowded Georgetown Prisons, the authorities should also keep close watch on conditions at the Sophia-located facility.
Some staff said that some of the teens who have committed offences such as murder, have been in the holding centre for three years, and have displayed violence towards other juveniles and even towards police ranks.
They identified a 16-year-old, who was charged with murder a few months ago, as being one of the dangerous juveniles being housed at the facility.
A staffer revealed that the teen and others recently inflicted a severe beating on another juvenile, who is also on a murder charge.
“They put his head in a plastic bag to kill him, and beat him with mop-sticks,” a source said.
Kaieteur News understands that the teen may be charged for the attack. A police patrol reportedly had to be summoned to assist the ranks at the facility.

“He is very violent, is sheer killing he talking about,” one staffer said.
About three weeks ago, the same 16-year-old attempted to stab a police rank with a piece of sharpened metal the teen had broken off from a bed.
At the time, the rank was attempting to remove a bed-sheet that the teen had hung over a cell door.
The ranks said that some juveniles have even yanked out ‘live’ electrical wiring from the cells to rig up booby traps for the staff.
“They would tie the electrical wiring with current to the cell doors, which would start to glow red, and then call the ranks,” one source said.
Kaieteur News was told that only the alertness of one policeman, who spotted the teens rigging up the trap, saved him from being injured.
But that is not the only threat that the ranks face.
“There are times when you try to talk to them and they would sh—t or have urine in plastic bags and they would throw it at you if they can’t get their own way.”
Some of the ranks believe that juveniles who don’t abide by the rules at the facility should be disciplined, just as adult inmates in the Georgetown Prisons and other penitentiaries.
But that isn’t the case, they claim.
For instance, while the violent teen was placed in solitary confinement, he was still allowed to have visitors who brought him special meals.
“The only way for them to behave is if they have no visits (while in solitary confinement).”If you don’t take away these privileges they will feel that solitary confinement is no big problem.”
Some of the police ranks feel that their attempts to discipline violent juveniles are being undermined by social work staffers, who sometimes admonish the ranks who are trying to instill discipline.
Some claimed that the juveniles “show one face” when the social workers are present, but “another face” when the social workers leave.
“The administrators and staff should allow the police to so their work with respect to discipline, even though they are administrators,” one rank said. “We are also trained in social work.”
One of the changes the ranks want is to have juveniles on serious offences such as murder and armed robbery charges separated from those on minor offences such as wandering and larceny.
“In the prisons, the inmates are mixed. It’s the same thing at the juvenile centre. You mix with the seasoned criminals and then you become like them.”
To correct this, some staff suggested that the facility be expanded so that more cells can be constructed. At present, there are reportedly eight cells –four each for males and females, with six juveniles per cell.
The Juvenile Holding Centre came under the spotlight last Saturday, when three teens broke out of the facility.
However, two of the escapes have been recaptured. The first one was caught at Rose Hall Town, Corentyne early on Saturday. Police and army ranks apprehended a second at Tain Settlement, Corentyne, Berbice. The third is still on the run.
According to reports, the teens used a cutlass and a few pieces of wood from a bed to dig a hole in the lower flat of the concrete building to get out of Cell Two. They then scaled a fence.
The ranks guarding the facility were reportedly “sound asleep”.
The teens, who hail from Georgetown, Essequibo and Berbice were being held there for robbery under arms, simple larceny and break and enter and larceny.
When this newspaper visited the centre on Saturday, an inmate shouted from inside his cell that the escapees made a few sharp objects from their bed frame and used them to make holes in the concrete wall.
He said that the three youths spent the entire night creating their escape route.
It was around 6:30am on Saturday that police ranks on duty observed that the inmates were missing and raised an alarm.

---

---