Large quantity of prohibited items discovered in prisons

As the Guyana Prison Service continues to rid contraband items in the State’s penitentiaries, a joint operation was conducted on Saturday during which several prohibited items were unearthed.
These include cellular phones, phone chargers, cigarette lighters, a quantity of cannabis, cellphone batteries, a quantity of razor blades, metal spoons and forks, nails clips, construction nails, smoking utensils, improvised weapons, playing cards, sandpaper, broken mirrors, copper wires, scissors, tobacco leaves and earpieces.
The searches were conducted by in excess of 200 ranks inclusive of senior officers of the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Prison Service.
According to the Police Force, there were no incidents during the exercises.
Contraband smuggling has long been a perennial problem within the prison system and this is compounded by the fact that both Prison and Police Officers are facilitating the illegal trade, which is said to be a “big business”.
While the authorities have been struggling to curb the illegal practice, there has been a breakthrough on the apparent network among rogue prison officers. In fact, only in October, four prison officers were arrested after they smuggled a bottle of rum and a pack of cigarettes into the Lusignan Prison the weekend prior. These officers were subsequently charged and interdicted from duty.
In addition, another two ranks found themselves in hot water following the discovery of illegal items at two separate prison facilities.
In Berbice, 1032 grams of suspected marijuana and 39 packs of cigarettes were found in the New Amsterdam Prison and a prison officer had admitted to conspiring with inmates to hide the contraband that was thrown over the fence.
Meanwhile, another prison officer at the Timehri penitentiary was taken into custody after he was implicated by an inmate regarding the presence of 584 grams of marijuana in the compound.
Furthermore, five other prison officers were relieved of their duties back in July after they were fingered in an incident whereby a parcel containing cannabis had been thrown into the Lusignan Prison Holding Bay area.
Director of Prisons (ag) Gladwin Samuels had disclosed in September that so far for the year, some 28 prison officers had been dismissed; 11 for facilitating or directly smuggling contraband into the prisons system.
The Prisons Director added that there are 12 ranks currently interdicted from duty; nine of whom have been charged either departmentally or criminally for trafficking-related activities.