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Lack of funds slowing revamp of prisons – Acting Director
A section of the gutted Camp Street jail
Director of Prisons (acting), Gladwin Samuels has refuted claims that there has been no follow-up on the recommendations, arising out of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the last fire and unrest at the Georgetown Prison at Camp Street in 2016.
The Director said that the steps have begun to address issues such as staff shortage that was identified by the COI.
“As it relates to some of the recommendations made, we have gone on a recruitment drive where our entry level is filled in terms of recruiting persons to assist in manning the prison,” Samuels noted.
Samuels stressed that “a lot of the recommendations are a work in progress and we have several consultancies going on right now that will serve to guide the implementation of some of the recommendations.”
He, however, explained that finances have been a major challenge to the implementation of some of the major recommendations coming out of the COI.
“There are some 40-odd recommendations that came out of the last Commission of Inquiry (CoI) and a lot of the major recommendations that came out require capital investment which we are currently working on,” Samuels pointed out.
The CoI report cited the combination of overcrowded, uncomfortable and unhygienic confinement at the prison, created the ideal conditions for epidemics, for gangs to prosper and to propagate discontent.
The CoI recommended reducing numbers in the prison to manageable levels as the single most important priority for establishing, a safe, humane and purposeful environment. Towards meeting this recommendation, the government had commenced work to expand the Mazaruni prison in Region Seven.
Government had injected over $350 million into expansion works at the Mazaruni Prison located in Region Seven, to accommodate more inmates as part of efforts to address the overcrowding at the Camp Street, Georgetown, prison.
Last year, 17 prisoners in the capital section of the Georgetown prison at Camp Street died as a result of an unrest started by the prisoners. It also resulted in damage to several sections of the prison.
Most of what was the Georgetown Prisons was gutted on Sunday after several fires were simultaneously started in multiple locations in the prison in a coordinated attack by the inmates.
The prisoners initially set fire to two locations of the prison – the Strong Cell Division and the Wooden Prison/Condemn Division – but the fires quickly spread to other parts of the prison compound and eventually gutted all the wooden sections of the facility.
Officials have confirmed that the fires were orchestrated by Mark ‘Royden’ Durant, who was convicted in the Bartica and Lusignan massacres. He reportedly had planning to escape for several months now, with one woman accused of attempting to smuggle a grenade to him in the jail.
Following the fire, the authorities were forced to relocate the prisoners to the Lusignan Prison in makeshift conditions. A number of them were later moved to the Mazaruni and New Amsterdam Prisons.
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