Should the government disban the prison at Lusignan?

Apr 29, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Ongoing occurences have revealed that the prison is an open killing field.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, the Russian writer of Crime and Punishment fame once said that “the degree of civilization in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.” While this would seem to be a logical conclusion, sadly it does not hold in Guyana. The country was rapped for it in 2011 by the U.S. State Department for its human rights record. The report on Human Rights Practices by the State Department showed that the most serious human rights abuses among others involved poor prison and jail conditions. During 2016 the Government of Guyana with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) agreed to conduct an inmate survey. A team of researchers headed by Rodolfo Sarsfield from the University Tres de FEbrero in Argentina was invited to develop the study.
Again in 2017, the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, under the auspices of the Office of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, strongly recommended to the Guyana Government that the Lusignan Prison be shut down “without delay” and replaced by one that meets international standards. The Working Group found that the Prison clearly fell short of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules). Following a visit to the Lusignan Prison The Working Group found that the majority of inmates in the prison were Afro-Guyanese, kept in appalling conditions with cells being unfit for human habitation. Furthermore, they added the facility was located close to a landfill with foul odour coming from stagnant dirty water.
Following the escape in October 2018 of three prisoners from Lusignan prison, the then Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan was warned by the Private Sector Commission, of the existing inhumane conditions at the prison, and the security risks being posed to prison guards. “While the Commission is concerned about the safety and security of the public, it is also disturbed by the less than humane conditions under which the prison population at the Lusignan Prison is housed.
No answers elicited, —but I am left floundering about in my dwindling pool of reality, as to the rationale underlying these commissions and investigations, if the recommendations are not being adhered to. Is it simply a case of officials going through the motion with absolutely no notion regarding the conclusion. To quote Alfred Lord Tennyson — Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
In prison safety is a basic necessity for prisoners and staff alike, and protection of prisoners against prisoners is also required. As a consequence institutions have a legal responsibility to protect all prisoners equally. In practice some institutions classify prisoners according to whether they are likely to be victims or aggressors or neither and separate their prisoners into these groups. On April 21, Jason Dundas, a 30 year old inmate of Lusignan Prison Holding Bay was killed during a scuffle between inmates. The death took place just one day after four prisoners managed to gain their freedom from the same holding bay. This is not the time to lay any blame, as there is certainly enough to go around, but pray tell, by and large who is really in charge of the jail, as it appears that those who dwell within the cell are the ones bent on causing hell?
Being imprisoned does not connote safety from harm, as dangerous weapons within the prison is rife, to be used by inmates ready to end each other’s lives. One week after 23 year old Samuel Little was remanded in 2019 for breaking and entering and larceny, he was killed in the Lusignan Holding Bay by another inmate. Two months prior to Little’s death, Shaheed Ali was killed in the same prison after being beaten by several prisoners, hours after he was transported to the prison. Reports state that in the last few years, the prison system has been rife with problems. No mention made of what remedial measures have been taken thus far. Random searches at the prison have unearthed geometry set compasses, cannabis, lighters, razor blades, needles, cell phones, etc. How often is inmate and environment surveillance conducted and in what manner? Such behaviour raises more questions than answers, especially as it pertains to the guards. On a note of inquiry if not suggestion: Should the government disban the prison at Lusignan? Are the guards asleep and failing a supervised watch to keep? The time has come for the powers that be to implement rigorous quality assurance, giving strict adherence to prior recommendations regarding prisons and inmates, conduct careful staff selection and possible rejection, screening of inmates, institute heightened security to foil likely escapees, so that the prison can fulfill its intended role— that of a heavily fortified and supervised enclosure where humans spend varying time after committing a serious crime.

Yvonne Sam

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