Authorities thwart plot by inmates to break out of Camp Street Prison

Swift response by members of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) on Friday morning thwarted a plot by several inmates to break out of the Camp Street penitentiary.

Guyana Times understands that sometime after 10:00h on Friday, Prison Service personnel became aware of an attempt by some inmates to break out of the jail.
Emergency alerts were sent out and ranks of both the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) responded.
Prisons Director Gladwyn Samuels confirmed that the incident took place, stating that he, along with other ranks, was interacting with prisoners in the security block of the Georgetown prison when they observed that several bars of a cell had been cut and secured with cloth.
According to a press release from Samuels, the Heads of Joint Services were alerted and the immediate search operation revealed that bars of another cell had also been cut. In addition, several hacksaw blades were discovered during the search.
The GPS Director pointed out that Safrei Alexander, an escapee from the July 9, 2017, prison break and Ryan Jones, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence for manslaughter, are reportedly the masterminds in the escape bid.
As such, systems were put in place for these persons to be secured at another location.
“The Police, with the assistance of Prison Officers from the Georgetown prison, will be conducting a full investigation into the matter to determine, among other matters, how the prisoners got possession of hacksaw blades and why the sawed bars were not discovered earlier,” the release added.
Meanwhile, Commander of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Sub-Division A (Georgetown), Edgar Thomas, when contacted confirmed that the assistance of his ranks was requested and as such, they were subsequently deployed to the Camp Street Prison on Friday morning.
He noted that as far as the Police were apprised, no prisoner escaped the compound.
However, the Commander stated that the situation at the Camp Street Prison was under control and measures are being put in place to ensure that prisoners make no other escape attempts.
Over the past few years, there have been attempts by prisoners at various prisons to escape the confines of their cells.
On August 22, last year, committed prisoner Delon Butcher received injuries about his body after he set fire to his mattress in the security block of the New Amsterdam Prison, Berbice.
The fire was extinguished by Prison Officers on duty.
Some four months earlier at that same prison, another convicted prisoner, who is serving a 25-year sentence for murder, started a fire there. On April 21, Devon Griffith started the fire in the solitary confinement area but the blaze was contained and extinguished before fire-fighters arrived at that location.
On July 14, 2017, prisoners incarcerated at the Lusignan Prison, East Coast Demerara (ECD), attempted to set fire to the wooden structure.
The prisoners had filled soda bottles with pieces of clothing and materials from the tents to make lamps, which they hurled at the Lusignan Prison wooden building. They accessed fuel from a generator which provided lighting for the area. The generator was unsupervised in the compound.
A tragedy was averted because fire-fighters had been present outside of the prison when the fire started.
Prior to these, there were attempts by prisoners in the Camp Street Prison which led to two fires gutting buildings and holding areas in the compound, one of which claimed the lives of over a dozen inmates.
The second fire had completely destroyed and flattened wooden structures; however, there were no reports of lives lost on this occasion.