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Citizens face life-threatening conditions in Police custody – US Dept. Report

Apr 02, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – A section of the US State Department’s 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices has highlighted that persons being detained by law enforcement officials, particularly in the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) holding cells, face life-threatening conditions.
Looking into the country’s prison and detention centre conditions, the report found that the conditions in the police holding cells were reportedly “harsh and potentially life threatening” because of overcrowding, physical abuse and inadequate sanitary conditions.
According to the US State Department, in October, the Guyana Prison Service’s (GPS) statistics showed that in seven facilities there were 1,761 inmates with a combined design capacity of 1,505. This was due to the overcrowding of a backlog of pretrial detainees, who account for 30 percent of the total prison population.
Back in 2018, the report stated that the Government had released findings of a 2017 independent study, which was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, which found prisoners being physically abused by prison officers. It stated too, that in 2018, the government released findings of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, that found the conditions at the Lusignan Prison appalling and that the cells were unhealthy for human habitation. There have been reports of the lack of potable water and complaints of lengthy confinement in the cells, with limited opportunities for sunlight by inmates.
The State also reported that in the adult prison, individuals, 16 years and older, are among the population, while in most cases, young offenders, below the age of 16, were held in a juvenile correctional centre, where they are offered primary education, vocational training and medical care.
The report pointed out that the Prison Service authorities did state that the condition of the prisons and detention centres are monthly investigated and monitored and that prisoners often circumvented procedures for submitting complaints of inhuman conditions or mistreatment by sending letters to government officials through their relatives.

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