Latest update December 3rd, 2024 1:00 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

The way we were; the way we are

Jul 27, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The security of the State remains weak.  It has always been so. The jailbreak of 2002 and the subsequent situation of the country being under siege, by criminals holed up in one small village, exposed the tender underbelly of Guyana’s security.
The events of the past year have only served as a reminder of the fragility of Guyana’s national security. A major prison riot, last year, could not be controlled, and led to the incineration of 17 prisoners – the worst prison disaster in the English-speaking Caribbean.
This was followed earlier this month when prisoners burnt, to the ground, the country’s main remand facility, one which also housed capital prisoners, some of whom escaped during the inferno. The situation got worse this Monday when prisoners who were transferred from the burnt-out prison to Lusignan outfoxed the prisoner authorities, feigning privacy, when in fact they were tunneling their way out of the prison. Thirteen prisoners escaped, but eight have since been recaptured.
These events signify the weakness of national security. It is not just a case of poor prison security. The entire national security system failed. Those failures need to be examined.
First, the authorities did not solve the problem of prison overcrowding following the Lusignan jailbreak. The Camp Street Prison was overcrowded. This facilitated the loss of control which led to the incineration of the prison a few weeks ago. Instead of widely dispersing the prisoners so as to have manageable prison populations, all that happened was that the overcrowding was shifted from Camp Street to Lusignan.  This made Lusignan an accident waiting to happen.
The authorities were not unaware that Lusignan was a powder keg waiting to explode. They did not have control of the prisoners in the pasture. The prisoners slaughtered a cow and there was nothing that the prison authorities there could have done. They were overwhelmed. It was the prisoners who were running the prison, not the wardens.
The Guyana Prison Service should have been provided with manpower support from the security services to control Lusignan. This was not done, and therefore no one should be blaming the prison authorities for failing to do what they were expected to do. They just did not have the means to restore order to Lusignan.
Second, the security services should have been manning the prisons around the clock and not now have to be chasing down the escapees. An emergency prison watch plan should have been implemented to ensure that no further riots or disturbances took place in the prisons, but especially at Lusignan. The national security authorities did not have a perimeter of security personnel outside of the Lusignan prisons. They wrongly assumed that the worst was over. It was not.
Third, the prison authorities were outfoxed. They fell for the oldest trick in book, as one cartoon put it. The prisoners outsmarted them. There is no way that the prison authorities should have allowed the prisoners to fence off a section of the pasture with a zinc sheet, on the pretext of wanting greater privacy when using the toilets. No structure should have been allowed near to the prison fence. The prisoners simply dug a small tunnel and 13 of them crawled to freedom without the prison authorities being any wiser.
There has been a lot of blame-throwing, but that is not going to help the situation, because it does not matter who is held accountable or removed. This was a collective failure of the National Security Council or whatever it is called. It is national security, rather than prison security, that failed.
The bottom line, though, is that security in Guyana has always been a disaster in the making, not just for prisons but for the entire country. There is no security in Guyana. The citizens of Guyana are all sitting ducks. Bandits have this country under siege. It has always been that way.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

 

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Rana five-for and enterprising batting put Bangladesh in the driver’s seat

Rana five-for and enterprising batting put Bangladesh in the...

Dec 03, 2024

ESPNcricinfo – Bangladesh’s counter-attacking batting and accurate fast bowling gave them their best day on this West Indies tour so far. At stumps on the third day of the Jamaica Test,...
Read More
ANSA McAL on board with inaugural National Futsal C/ship

ANSA McAL on board with inaugural National Futsal...

Dec 03, 2024

GBF unveils squad for 2024 FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup in Puerto Rico

GBF unveils squad for 2024 FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup...

Dec 03, 2024

Someash Boyer benefits from Project “Cricket Gear for young and promising cricketers in Guyana”

Someash Boyer benefits from Project “Cricket...

Dec 03, 2024

Several athletes and coaches aiming to benefit from India’s JAIN University scholarships

Several athletes and coaches aiming to benefit...

Dec 03, 2024

GAPLF congratulates Dominic Tyrell for taking Sportsman of the Year runner-up  

GAPLF congratulates Dominic Tyrell for taking...

Dec 03, 2024

Features/Columnists

  • Morally Right. Legally wrong

    …Peeping Tom Morally Right. Legally wrong Kaieteur News- The situation concerning the disputed parliamentary seat held... more

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]