Mazaruni Prison expansion delayed

… overtopping of river blamed

The recently released 2018 mid-year report has revealed that construction works at the Mazaruni Prison, intended to expand the facility so it could take on more prisoners from the city, was delayed for the first half of the year.
The report blamed overtopping of the Mazaruni River which resulted in delayed mobilisation of the contractor. While the report does not name the particular contractor, the work was awarded last year to A Nazir and Sons Contracting ($28.1 million) and R Kissoon Contracting Services Limited ($30.4 million).
“Works are anticipated to intensify throughout the second half (of 2018) and into 2019,” the report also adds. The sloth of implementing this project has, however, had an effect on overall spending.
For instance, the mid-year report noted that only $21 million was actually spent; out of the $1.5 billion allocated to the Prison Service from the 2018 National Budget. In fact, Government budgeted $30.7 billion to support capital and recurrent projects and programmes under the Public Security Ministry. Of that amount, $14 billion has so far been expended.
Meanwhile, the report also states that Government will be tendering for designs for a new prison at Georgetown by year end. This will come after successive years of prison disturbances, which culminated in most past at the Georgetown prison which was burnt to the ground.
The Camp Street Prison reached the end of the line on July 9, 2017 when prisoners set that facility on fire, occasioning its complete destruction except for a newly built brick building which is still standing intact.
In the ensuing confusion, a number of prisoners managed to escape from lawful custody, including convicted murderers Mark Royden Durant, also called “Royden Williams”; Uree Varswyck: Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander and Cobena Stephens – all deemed armed and dangerous. That incident resulted in the death of Prison officer Wickham, who lost his life after he was shot by prisoners during the prison break.
Following that jailbreak, over 1000 prisoners were displaced. While some were moved to Mazaruni or granted early release or bail, others had remained at the Lusignan Prison, on the East Coast of Demerara, under straightened circumstances. It was then that another contingent escaped. Since these two jailbreaks, all but two prison escapees – Paul Goriah and Cobena Stephens – have either been recaptured or killed.
In March 2016, another fire raged through the Camp Street Prison and claimed the lives of 17 prisoners. Afterwards, a Commission of Inquiry, which cost the Treasury some $13 million, was ordered by President David Granger to probe the circumstances which led to that fire and the deaths of the inmates.