Coalition Govt should audit the Prison Service

Dear Editor,
I write this letter out of concern for what I believe to be a demonstration of un-professional and self-serving behaviour, on the part of Guyana’s Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, when he answered questions from representatives of the local media on the reasons for the prisoners’ protest on September 19, 2017.
The Director stated, “The escapees wanted steak for breakfast and it was not available.” He was referring to the recent protest by some inmates in the Camp Street Prison who were protesting against the porridge served to them for breakfast. It is my opinion that his comments on this matter were irresponsible. His propagandising was designed to influence public opinion against the protesting prisoners. This approach is counterproductive to improving relations between inmates and officers – apparently this is not the goal of the prison administration. Mr Samuels is fully aware that his tenure as Head of the Guyana Prisons Service has attracted several negative reports from various quarters, including incarcerated prisoners and Prison Officers he supervises. It was as a result of the pressure and public scrutiny he is under that he made this most asinine and irresponsible statement when he gave the impression that the prisoners wanted steak for breakfast.
My concern resides in the fact that someone, who – over the years of his close relationship with the Prison Service like Samuels has had – can, and very deliberately so, misrepresent information to the public with the intention of deflecting from himself, responsibility for the breakdown in the administration of the prison services and the resulting consequences. I am contending here that the incident on September 19, 2017 cannot be viewed in isolation. It has to be seen in the context of the overall general crisis existing in the prisons. The administrators of the prisons, of which Samuels is a key player, are pivotal to what is taking place and are not blameless. Ridiculous statements like the one Samuels is credited with having made cannot, and will not, absolve him and those other persons who are responsible for the running of the prisons from some of the blame that has led to the chaos within the prison system.
I speak here as a person, who in the 1980s served a three-year sentence both in the Georgetown and Mazaruni Prisons. In the period of my incarceration, inmates were never given “steak” for breakfast – not even on important celebratory days like Independence, Republic and Christmas Day. I challenge Mr Samuels to name one occasion, in his years of experience in the Prison Service when steak was served as breakfast to prisoners. I have for political and personal reasons over the years been paying attention to what happens in this country’s prison system and have never heard of an improvement in the conditions of life in the prison that has seen prisoners being treated with a steak meal breakfast in recognition of a special occasion. In fact, it is well known that the meals prisoners are sometimes fed with are unfit for human consumption. Mr Samuels must be aware of allegations which are levelled at prison officers, including some, high up in the chain of command, of stealing and carrying out of the prisons – for use in their homes – the dietary supplements that have been purchased for the preparation of meals for the prisoners.
I am saying here that Prisons Director Gladwin Samuels is playing politics with the prisoners’ lives, welfare and well-being, and also those of prison officers who work in the prisons. The situation in Guyana’s prisons demands an intense, systemic investigation so that the political directorate can come to grips with what is taking place thereby allowing it to make the required changes, which would cater for an improvement in the overall administration of the prisons. The recent disruptions in the prisons, including the massive fires and the consequential loss in human lives and property are clear indicators that there are serious problems within the system that can no longer be ignored.
I, therefore, want to use this opportunity to call on the coalition Government to, as a matter of urgency, put in place the mechanism for the systemic audit of the prisons before the situation worsens.

Sincerely,
Tacuma Ogunseye