By Shauna Jemmott

THE ATTORNEY who represents the Joint Services at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Georgetown Prison riots which claimed the lives of seventeen prisoners on March 3 is suggesting that Deputy Director of Prisons (DDoP), Gladwin Samuels, return to duty in the capacity of officer-in-charge of the Camp Street Prison.

Attorney-at-law Eusi Anderson made this suggestion in light of prison officers testifying at the CoI and highlighting the untoward effects in the Georgetown Prison yard of Samuels’s absence from active duty due to suspension.

“I believe he should head the prisons,” Anderson declared.

PREMATURE
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, the lawyer said he believes the decision to send Samuels on leave was premature. He said he understands that certain factors had to be taken into consideration because Government was responding at the time to the public outcry over the deaths of 17 prisoners.

Samuels, Deputy Director of the Georgetown Prisons, was suspended from duty by Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on March 4, a day after the deadly blaze started by prisoners within the Capital ‘A’ block had left more than 17 families in mourning and several witnesses, including prison officers and prisoners, traumatized. Prisoners had accused Samuels of having left their fellow inmates to burn to death in the fire during the prison riot.

Anderson said, “I understand that it would be on good footing if his continued presence at the Camp Street Prison would have impacted upon the willingness of inmates to give testimony; because if strongman Samuels is going to be around and I fear that his presence at the prison during my testimony is going to lead to some immediate consequences, then I can understand that.”

Anderson said he believes there are still sufficient safeguards to protect prisoners from any assumed “type of arbitrary and retributive conduct” by Samuels, as the CoI had heard from all the prison witnesses. The lawyer said, “I believe, as you heard from the point of view of the prison officers who are currently charged with responsibility for the safety of us all, because by virtue of them being in charge of the Camp Street Prison, some of our most dangerous citizens, they are indirectly and vicariously responsible for our safety as well.”

THE SAMUELS PRESENCE
Anderson said testimonies suggest that the presence of Samuels is needed at the main correctional facility, because prisoners have since become out of order whereas officers have testified that he was responsible for major drug busts.

Chief Officer at the Georgetown Prisons, Peter Barker, told the CoI last Friday: “As prisoners, walking around with two ‘jookers’ (improvised daggers) in their waist, and rolling up marijuana (and) smoking a big joint, and they walking in front of you and blowing smoke in your face, temptations (arise).”

MOTIVATION
A day earlier, Chief Prison Officer Roddy Denhart’s testimony before the CoI confirmed that officers depend greatly on Samuels for motivation. Moreover, the prison needs him, as inmates have now become uncontrollable.

“Now it is full blown; the inmates are out of order…. In your presence, regardless of who (you are), they will be on their cell phones, marijuana in their mouths smoking. They have long improvised weapons…, walking around and doing whatever they choose to do,” Denhart had said.

He added: “Recently, a prison officer was choked and robbed in the prison yard. Another one was (patted) on his chest with a long knife that an inmate had…just hailing he up; blatantly hailing the officer up with a long knife on his chest.”

Denheart had spoken extensively about Samuels being a disciplinarian. He had described him as “a very stern individual; he is a disciplinarian and doesn’t stick nonsense”, but he is one officer whom prisoners dislike.

Denhart had also explained that Samuels has a very good system in place to easily track underhand activities within the Georgetown Prison.

DRUG BUSTS
“Most of the biggest drug busts in the prison were done by Mr. Samuels, and because of that fact, he is not liked by most of the inmates,” Denheart had testified.

According to Denhart, the absence of Samuels from the Georgetown Prison has created a dent within the security system.

“His absence has (created) a hole in the security system to some extent; and like I said, his network is his network, I don’t know how he does it,” he had explained, adding that the decision to remove Samuels from the prison has “affected” both inmates and officers “a great lot.”

Two weeks ago, Officer-in-Charge of the Georgetown Prison, Senior Superintendent Kevin Pilgrim, told the CoI that “intimidation” is the order of the day at the Camp Street Prison, as there is a “stronger gang culture now more than ever; and as it is, that poses problems in itself.” He had said further that the shortage of wardens exacerbates the situation.

Director of Prisons, Carl Graham, had also told the Commissioners that “the pressure is on” in the absence of Samuels from duty.

Attorney Anderson told the Guyana Chronicle that one needs to take time to assess the type of effect Samuels’s absence has clearly had on the prisons.

“For you to be operational at the level of your job, there must be some internal drive to do that. It is clear that Mr. Samuels has an effect on what you call ‘the individual staff’s morale’. Mr. Samuels has been able to command, muster and inspire that in his staff; so, without him being there, we know staff morale at the individual agency level has taken a significant beating,” Anderson explained.

INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
Anderson said that, in addition to having vital leadership qualities, Samuels has had a tremendous impact on intelligence-gathering.

“You can’t operate in the dark. This isn’t a situation whereby you are ‘Hey, leh me wake up and see if I can find an unlawful weapon in this corner or a contraband in that corner’; you have to act on actionable intelligence. I don’t want to speculate, but I would say that, to some extent, Mr. Samuels, by virtue of his experience, his personality and his knowledge of the environment, was able to maximize those strands and chains of intelligence,” the lawyer said.

He added that while, “from an operational standpoint”, Samuels’s absence is most glaring and really has a significant effect on the way in which the prison is operating right now, “if you can’t operate on the level of actionable intelligence — you can’t operate on the level of your staff being coordinated properly and feeling inspired by their leader — you have a serious security problem.”

The Joint Services attorney concluded that although Samuels would have had his fair hearing and an opportunity to defend himself against the allegations, “you would not be far removed from the truth if you said that his continued absence and non-replacement of a personality like his, with experience like his in terms of the immediate replacement, is having a serious effect on the operation of that prison.”