Security at remaining prisons beefed up – Prison Chief

…situational risk assessment constantly being done

Following the devastating fire at the Camp Street Prison that razed most of the buildings and resulted in a number of prisoners escaping, steps have been taken to boost up the security at other penitentiaries such as the Mazaruni Prison, where a complement of prisoners were moved.

This is according to the acting Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, who was recently asked what measures the Prison Service has put in place to secure the remaining prisons, even as offenders are being moved to help accommodate all prisoners.
It is understood that since the fire, over 400 prisoners have been transferred to penitentiaries in Mazaruni, New Amsterdam and Timehri. Samuels gave assurances that the Joint Services were continuing their collaboration and risk assessments were being done.
“The Guyana Prison Service deployed officers,” he related. “At the Joint Services level, we have put systems in place to have the prison staff complemented by members of the Guyana Defence Force, Fire Service and the Police Force.”
“We are also constantly assessing those situations and additional staff will be deployed as necessary,” the Prison Chief added.
Concerns have been expressed about the level of security at prisons such as Mazaruni. During a recent interview with members of the media, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Security Liaison, Captain (retd) Gerry Gouveia, had spoken about the need to hike security.

Gouveia had expressed support for the suggestion that the stone section at the Camp Street Prison, the lone surviving building after the July 9 prison fire, be used for remand purposes. However, he recommended that more security measures – including dogs and surveillance equipment – be utilised at the Mazaruni facility, where a multimillion-dollar extension was under construction.
“I’ve always believed that the Mazaruni Prison certainly (has) the potential to be a high-security prison,” Gouveia had said. “But in planning and doing it, they have to understand that the Mazaruni Prison is vulnerable, not only to breaking-outs, but breaking-ins. If you have high-profile prisoners in that prison, that prison becomes very vulnerable.”
Describing ways in which the Prison might be exposed to break-outs and break-ins, Gouveia had reminded that it was situated on the mainland and not on an island. He also identified specific vulnerable areas.
“And so they have to ensure the security system has dogs; cameras; ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) and drones. And then, of course, the Mazaruni Prison is in the middle of one of our tourism regions — in the Bartica area. So we have to be very thoughtful when we’re doing these things, because tourism is going to be one of (the) major economic pillars of our development,” Gouveia said.

Records
Meanwhile, it was related that all is not lost in retrieving prisoners’ records that went up in flames. Samuels revealed that there were records that were entered into an Inmate Management Information System.
“I must say that we do not have much work to do,” Samuels related. “Because most of the current records were entered into the Inmate Management Information System and fortunately for us, the hard drive is secure.”
“So we will be able to retrieve from that almost all of the information from the Prison,” the Prison Chief said in defending the efficiency of the system, noting that “inputting of information is done Monday to Friday by a special team”.
Government was forced to relocate a number of prisoners from the Camp Street Prison on short notice because of the fire. Hundreds were moved to a fenced pasture at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara; 83 were removed to the Mazaruni Prison; 90 were removed to the New Amsterdam Prison; 48 were moved to Timehri Prison.
In addition, the early release of 57 inmates was granted by Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan; while, through the efforts of the Magistrates who descended on the Lusignan Prison to grant bail en masse for lesser offences to reduce the numbers incarcerated, 26 prisoners were placed on self-bail.
As of Friday, only 90 prisoners who were referred to by Ramjattan as the “real bad ones” remained in the fenced pasture. The remainder had been moved to a specially prepared area.