By Ariana Gordon

BASIL Morgan, the third prisoner to testify at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the recent Georgetown Prison riots that resulted in the deaths of 17 of his fellow inmates, said all the inmates were doing was trying to gain the attention of the media and authorities.

Morgan yesterday told the three-man Commission and its Counsel, Excellence Dazzell, that, over the years, prisoners have been complaining about what they consider to be a delay in the legal system. He said the lack of speedy trials proved frustrating, and, as such, inmates of the Capital ‘A’ Division protested on the night of March 2. That protest took the form of two fires and chants.

The murder accused who has been on remand at the Camp Street penitentiary for approximately five years said efforts were made all around to see how best the inmates’ pleas could be heard and addressed. Morgan said he even took it upon himself to write the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and the Ministry of the Presidency.

He told the Commission that though he’d written several letters, he’d only walked with three. Those letters were written on and between January 22, 2014 and October 6, 2015. The letters were submitted to the Commission to be considered as exhibits.

He, however, admitted that though he has written to various persons in authority, he has never once received a response. The 37-year-old also noted that when complaints were made to the prison wardens, the response was that their only responsibility was to house and keep inmates safe. “They are only mandated to keep you safe, nothing more.”

It was this disinterest on the part of the wardens, he said, that caused the prisoners to become frustrated.

GROWING FRUSTRATION
“Persons’ frustration grew,” he said, “and they tried to gain the attention of the media so their stories can be heard; by lighting a fire on the external part of the building, the eastern side,” he said.

Asked to state who had lit the two fires at the Camp Street jail, Morgan said he did not know, but he readily admitted to being part of the group of 69 prisoners who protested within the Capital ‘A’ Division of the penitentiary.

“Persons chant to their satisfaction, and then the ‘fire-reel’ came and out the fire. And they light back the fire… The media arrived, and persons was at the window shouting, ‘We need speedy trials! We are being victimised’,” Morgan recounted.

Asked whether prison officers were on the scene at the time of the fires, Morgan replied in the affirmative. He said the fires were eventually put out by members of the Guyana Prison Service. He also testified that on the morning of March 3, prison officers visited the Division and instructed that the prisoners collect their belongings and exit the Division.

“Five by five”, they were instructed to exit the division, so that another search could be conducted.

As previous witnesses had testified, a search had already been done during the course of March 2, and had yielded, among other things, several mobile phones, sharp objects, and marijuana.

Morgan said the prison officers never asked questions about the previous night’s occurrences, but the prisoners had made it clear: “We have no problem with the police; we have no problem with the firemen; we have no problem with the prison wardens. We just want our voices to be heard.”

He said that, thankfully, he was one of the first set of prisoners to be escorted out of the Capital ‘A’ Division following instructions by the prison officers.

NOT RESISTING
According to Morgan, the prisoners were not resisting the instructions by the prison officials.
“There wasn’t no resistance of the inmates when they were told to come out,” he said, adding that those who were escorted before the deadly fires on March 3 were taken to the prison’s tarmac, searched, and then escorted to the prison’s cafeteria.

He, however, recalls hearing someone pass an order to “Close the door!”

“While I was getting searched, the order was given to the police officer at the door. I don’t know who shout out the order,” he testified.

He considers himself lucky to be one of the first set of prisoners to be able to exit the Division. “Thank God I didn’t get to go back; I would have been dead right now,” Morgan, a Bagotstown resident, remarked.

Asked if he knew how the 17 prisoners died, Morgan said many of them would have suffocated, as the Capital ‘A’ Division has poor ventilation. He said tear gas was thrown into the facility, and many of his colleagues were “panting for breath”. Those who survived, he said, were those who were situated more to the back of the Division.

The man told the Commission that the survivors would tell stories of how they made it out of Capital ‘A’ Division alive. Those very survivors, he said, had told him that tear gas was thrown into the facility.

President of the Guyana Bar Association, Christopher Ram, cross-examined Morgan as per the GBA’s request, which was granted for full participatory rights during the life of the Commission.

“Mr Morgan, who wrote this statement? Was it written by you?” Ram asked the prisoner. Morgan replied in the negative, noting that it was a fellow prisoner who had written the statement. He could not provide the name of the inmate who had written the statement, but explained that he did not ask an inmate to write the statement.

“That person was presented to us with the relevant documentation to take the statement, and was going around…so I don’t know who ordered it,” Morgan said.

He said all inmates who reside in Capital ‘A’ and who also played a part in saving lives on March 3 were asked to make a statement. Morgan said he read the statement that was taken by the inmate before signing it. The prisoner said he’d heard of the CoI through prison officers, and decided that he wanted to give evidence before the Commission.

Asked to provide the Commission with a description of Capital ‘A’ Division, Morgan said it was “approximately 60 to 70 feet by 30 to 40 width.”

The prisoner reiterated, during cross-examination by Ram, that the main objective of the prisoners’ protests was to obtain the media’s attention and ultimately receive speedy trials. “This goes to show that is not the night of the 2nd issue, because I have letters here… We did spoke to persons seeking help,” he stressed, but nothing came out of it.