Building design completed for bigger Lusignan Prison

A preliminary architectural design has been completed for the Lusignan Prison on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). The building was flattened by fire last July following riots by inmates.

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn noted on Friday that a larger prison would be built at the location but budgetary allocations for works to commence would be part of the next Budget, for the year 2021. In the meantime, temporary holding bays are being established to hold prisoners.
Minister Benn reminded that the situation of inadequate prison facilities was inherited from the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition, whose tenure saw several prison fires and attempts by prisoners to set the penitentiaries alight.
As such, he noted that they were seeking to enhance the surroundings in which inmates were kept, “This is what we inherited and we are going to make it better.”
The Minister said a visit to the Lusignan Prison revealed that some prisoners were sleeping on the ground while others were accommodated in hammocks. Prisoners had also raised concerns with the new subject Minister about poor meals being provided.

Benn has disclosed that Government was working to have an agricultural initiative at the Prison to grow produce to feed inmates. A similar project has been implemented at the Mazaruni Prison and deemed successful.
Hundreds of millions have been injected thus far for expansion and rehabilitation of the Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Mazaruni Prisons.
Earlier this week, Benn placed emphasis on the prison fires at Georgetown and Lusignan penitentiaries within a period of five years, which significantly limited capacity across the prisons and resulted in overcrowding. In fact, he said a recent visit showed that over 570 inmates were confined to a small space.
Back in July of this year, pandemonium broke out at the Lusignan Prison after a fire was set in one of the holding areas reportedly by protesting inmates after a team was dispatched to probe the discovery of narcotics.
On July 10, 2017, a massive fire destroyed most of the Georgetown Prison, resulting in the escape of several prisoners. One prison officer was shot dead. The prisoners on the run had included Bartica and Lusignan Massacres convict Mark “Royden” Durant, aka Royden Williams, and Uree Varswyck, aka Malcolm Gordon. It was reported that the capital section of the Georgetown Prison was completely burnt, thus hundreds of prisoners were evacuated from the facility and taken to the Lusignan, Timehri, New Amsterdam and Mazaruni Prisons.
Seventeen prisoners were burnt to death on March 3, 2016 at the same facility after inmates had set several fires in their holding cell to protest of the conditions of the prisons.
These incidents, which reduced holding areas at the prisons, resulted in the inmates being transferred to other penitentiaries across the country, thus creating congestion. While contractors doing rehabilitation and construction works at the various prisons were stalled as a result of COVID-19, Minister Benn said they have been given the greenlight to continue.
Meanwhile, some 140 prisoners have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Lusignan facility, with the overcrowded conditions facilitating the spread of the virus. (G12)