Prison deaths COI recommends halfway houses for female inmates

Nov 26, 2017 News

A Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the fiery deaths of 18 prisoners on March 3, 2016 at the Camp Street prison, has called for the authority to establish halfway houses for women who have found themselves in trouble with the law.

With such a system, female prisoners can get their life together, develop the self-confidence and the skills to care for themselves and their children. Eventually they could re-start their life.

According to the report, it is evident that imprisonment of a parent or guardian may cause considerable hardship on innocent children, who are forced to relocate to live with others, change schools and suffer hardship.

“The impact on children of various forms of sentencing of adult relatives is not taken into account in sentencing decision in Guyana,” the report stated.

It has been noted that security arrangements at the Women’s prison in New Amsterdam, Berbice are extensions for what is in place for the men’s section within the same compound, that is, “an unnecessary multiplicity of locks, bars, barbed wire and electronic devices in overcrowded spaces.”

Kaieteur News has learnt that prison is a much harsher experience for women than men. An extended stay would usually mean they emerge to find their children dispersed, their partner no longer around and their homes taken over by others.

Based on the report, women are usually incarcerated because they are the victims of men either by being used as a “drug mules” or for stealing so as to feed their children for whom child fathers are not providing or they are on murder charges for having turned violently on a brutal male partner.

It was recommended for women, except in very exceptional circumstances, not to be sent to prison at all and their role as care-givers should attract much higher priority. It was recommended, too, for thorough investigation to be carried out on any complaint of sexual harassment while detained.

The COI was ordered by President David Granger after prison unrest left 18 prisoners dead and five injured. The deadly fire was started by inmates housed in the Capital Offences section of the prison during the riot. It is believed that the men were burnt to death.
Confirmed dead were Jermaine Otto, Rayon Paddy, Sherwin Trotman, Anthony Primo, Shaka McKenzie, Kirk Clarke, Latchman Partap, Chaitram Dharamdat, Aaron Eastman, Andrew Philander, Randolph Marks, Rohan Teekaran, Hilary Amos, Ashraf Ali, Delroy Williams, Clifton Joseph and Richard Hubbard.

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