The controversial Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the deadly prison riot at the Camp Street Prison and the prison system in general has burnt up about million of taxpayers’ monies.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon made this disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday morning at the Ministry of the Presidency.
The financial cost to the COI comes in light of criticisms that the COI was a waste of time and resources, contending that the findings would be no different from previous recommendations made to bring about prison reform.
One of the critics of the COI, former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran had explained that many reports were previously compiled citing the same faults in the country’s prison system; however, the Government of the day never made any attempts to implement the said proposals. He believes that this will again be the case.
Corruption watchdog Transparency Institute of Guyana (TIGI) had also expressed that the prison CoI could be nothing more than window dressing.
The CoI report was handed over to the Government on May 9; however, it was yet to be officially released to the public.
According to a copy seen by Guyana Times, several recommendations have been made with the aim of relieving the constant problem of overcrowding in the prisons.
The report recommended that the Government move to abolish mandatory minimum sentences; decriminalise possession of minimum amounts of marijuana for personal use; establish and expand alternatives to incarceration for those charged with low-level drug offences; ensure proportionality in sentencing – distinguishing between: drug trafficking and other types of crime, low, medium and high-level drug offences, rank or position of the accused in drug-trafficking networks, and violent and non-violent offences; avoid preventive detention (remand) in the case of low-level, non-violent offenders; employ non-custodial sentences in all cases of possession – such as treatment, educational opportunities or community service – that are available to those involved in other types of offences; re-orient law enforcement efforts to target high-level drug-trafficking networks, rather than those at the bottom rung of the drug-trafficking ladder, such as consumers, small-scale farmers, low-level dealers and mules; and undertake periodically comprehensive prison censuses to upgrade and expand criminal justice data systems and ensure timely access to criminal justice information for policymakers and the public.
The CoI was established by the Government following the historic unrest at the Camp Street prison which resulted in the deaths of 17 inmates.
More than 25 witnesses, including prisoners, prison officers, members of the Guyana Fire Service and members of the Guyana Police Force, testified before the Commission.
Retired Justice James Patterson (Chairman); human rights activist Merle Mendonca and former Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine were the Commissioners.
