By Shauna Jemmott

MICHAEL Lewis, a survivor of the recent prison riots, continued his testimony yesterday before the Commission of Inquiry into the occurrence at the Georgetown prison.Under cross-examination by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd, Lewis said he had no prior knowledge of any plot by any inmate to burn the prison down, nor of any plan of the coming together of any prisoners to start a fire.
Todd was accepted to be part of the inquiry, as the Attorney-at-Law representing prison riot survivor Marcellus Verbeke, and the family of the deceased Delroy Williams, who was one of the 17 casualties of the uprising. Verbeke, of ‘C’ Field, Sophia, Greater Georgetown is on remand for the murder of Troy Skeete at said ‘C’ Field, Sophia, on June 9, 2015. He suffered severe burns during the fire.
The late Williams, on the other hand, was charged on October 2014 with the murder of 17-year-old miner, Azaad Potter, at Konawaruk, in the Potaro.
RELIVING THE EVENT
Lewis gave as the reason he participated in the riot on March 2, his dissatisfaction with the long wait for trial, and the way the judicial system in this country works. He also said that it was only after he was awakened by droplets of water that he became aware that an insurrection was in progress.

He said he did not see when the fire was started on March 3, but recalled being in the burning dormitory for over an hour before being rescued.
He also swore that he was unaware of any prison officer trying to get to him to take him to safety, or of any of his colleague inmates trying to prevent prison officers from entering the burning building.

Lewis testified that as he lay there, face down on the ground, head turned towards the door for air, the only person he could recall coming to his rescue was fellow inmate, Steve Bacchus.
As Bacchus approached, Lewis said, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Who alive?” He must have also called out to him, as Lewis said when he did, he answered.
With that, he said, Bacchus left and returned, within minutes, with one Prison Officer Crawford and a fireman.
To Prison Officer Crawford’s credit, Lewis said he tried opening a side door, using a bunch of keys he had with him, but was unsuccessful.
On seeing that, Lewis said, Crawford, the fireman and Bacchus they all left, but the latter would subsequently return, saying that the prison officers had opened the front door and that those who’d survived the fire should make a run for it.
He said that though there was a riot the night before (March 2), there was none on the morning of March 3, as the Division had by then returned to normalcy. It was only Capital A, he said, that had not been fed as per usual.
Lewis testified that after he was rescued from the burning building, he sat on the tarmac and watched as prisoners from the “old capital” and those who worked in the yard rescued other survivors from the damaged building.
As this was going on, he said, prison officers “were just standing off, watching the whole proceedings.”

RE-EXAMINATION
Under re-examination by the commission’s Attorney Excellence Dazzell, Lewis said prison officers had carried out a search on ‘Capital A’ on March 2, but had been unable to complete a second one the following day.
Earlier into the inquiry, Lewis had told Dazzell that he did not see what his fellow inmates had used to create a hole in the wall separating the dormitories of Capitals A and B, but could only surmise that it was metal from the beds in the housing.
But under cross-examination by Attorney-at-Law Selwyn Pieters, Lewis said the hole in the wall was “punched” by prisoners in Capital B to facilitate communication among prisoners on the two blocks, but that he could not say who lit the fire in the wall on March 3.
Lewis said all he could recall seeing was prison officers trying to douse the fire with an extinguisher. He said that while they did get the fire to die down a little, they were unable to put it out completely.
He also recalled seeing inmates from Capital B leaving the building, and rather suspects they were being helped by prison officers, since it is only they who are authorised to do so.
He said he stopped paying attention to what was happening around him, when two cans of tear gas were thrown into his dormitory, Capital A.
He said that not only did he see when the cannisters fell into the ‘dorm’, but he also heard the hissing sound the tear gas made as it spewed out of the cans, and even saw the gas as it began to take over the room, by which time he could feel it burning his eyes and face.

ALREADY EXITED
He also testified that the 65 prisoners who had already exited Capital A were evacuated earlier through the front door to facilitate a search on the block, but that he’d heard no further command from either Prison Officer Samuels, or Pilgrim to Capital A prisoners to move over to Capital B through the broken wall.
He said that though he had seen a fire blazing at the hole in the wall, he did not see if it was a mattress or any other object that was lit.
Lewis said too that though he had earlier observed prison officers using a extinguisher to put out the fire, he could not say what was in it.
Pieters put it to the witness that the powdery substance which came out of the extinguisher, when combined with the flames from the mattress on fire, is what may have caused the prisoners’ eyes and skin to burn.
He said he recalled hearing prisoners say that in times past when mattresses were used to start a fire, the prison officers would use a dry powder-like chemical to extinguish it. “The extinguisher was used before, and we never get a burning,” he said.
But as Lewis said in response, he did not see anyone put a cork or any item to the front door to prevent it from opening.
He said while he was on the floor on March 3, he cried out along with other prisoners trapped in the burning Capital A, but did not hear any sawing of a door lock by prison officials.
After being shown two photographs comparing the door, one of which was taken on Tuesday during the CoI prison visit by a photographer employed by the prison, Lewis said he noticed in the photograph that a lock was sawn and concrete broken outside the door, but never noticed that at any time after he was rescued from the room.
While the lawyer challenged the alleged ‘illiteracy’ of the witness, Lewis held out that he cannot properly read and write. He had on Tuesday revealed to the Commission that though he had signed his own incomplete statement, another prisoner had written it, because he himself cannot read and write properly.
While the lawyer, being guided by Georgetown Prison representative, Prison Officer Wayne Wickham, challenged the prisoner strongly, suggesting that his leadership role as the ‘Muslim mentor’ in the Georgetown Prison he was responsible for teaching Islam and taking prisoners through prayers, Lewis put up a defense.
The prisoner said while he was responsible for gathering the Muslim prisoners from the various locations together for prayers on time, “other learned brothers” would do the reading and writing. “It ain’t get no officer that could say that they see me writing on the board, sir,” Lewis said in his defence.