By Shauna Jemmott
Convicted prisoner Carl Brown has disclosed that corruption at the Georgetown jail is not new to the system, since for years prison officers have been smuggling and marketing prohibited items.Brown appeared for the first time before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Georgetown Prison riots which claimed the life of 17 prisoners on March 3.
Under cross-examination by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd, who is representing the interest of Marcellus Verbeke and the families of Delroy Williams and another prisoner, Brown said cell phones and marijuana are usually smuggled into the prison by prison officers, who would be paid to pass the items to prisoners. He was under sworn testimony.
“De officers themselves bringing it and we buying it and we gon still buying it… This is me seventh phone you know,” the convicted prisoner said to the CoI.
He said he had paid an officer $7,000 for a good phone, and when the items are seized, the prisoners would pay and get them back, he added.
“And as soon as they’re taken away, you pay and yuh gon geh dem back,” Brown testified.
The prisoner boldly alleged that one of the members of the Commission who was previously attached to the Georgetown Prisons should be aware of smuggling by prison officers at the prison since it also happened too while he was employed with the prison.
When Attorney-at-Law Selwyn Pieters, representing the Joint Services, objected to the prisoner making inflammatory statements before the Commission, the prisoner responded: “I don’t make no inflammatory statement, I just come here to speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Chairman of the Commission, Justice James Patterson (retired), said the Commission could not know what would come out of the prisoner’s mouth before he spoke.
Brown, a prisoner since 1997, who escaped twice from the penitentiary (including during a Mazaruni jail break), said he would always at any opportunity, try to escape imprisonment since he believes as an individual, he has a right to freedom.
On March 2, Brown, who is resident on the Old Capital of the Georgetown Prison, said he observed officers doing a fire drill in the prison compound but he did not observe the fire which was lit in Capital A by prisoners, since he spoke with his girlfriend and went to sleep.
He said prisoners lighting fire at the prison previously is public knowledge, but those fires were always “a lil fire just to draw their (prison authorities) attention”, and officers would put them out or prisoners themselves would out the blaze in a bucket brigade.
“This whole country know prisoners light fires. That’s how we does draw attention because nobody does pay attention to the prison.”

BEYOND CONTROL
On March 3, he said prisoners were not able to put out the fires because “it was beyond their control.”
He said it was after prison officers threw tear gas into the building that “it was dark… fiery”. He said although he saw hose present at the prison, the officers never attempted to put out the fire, until the smell of human flesh permeated the atmosphere.
He observed some smoke and heard prisoners saying they light a matrass before an order was given by Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels, to lock the door and let them burn. It was only after the tear gas was thrown that the fire blazed ‘out of control’, the prisoner said.
He said he would not say officers did not do enough to save the prisoners, but would say instead that the prison officers did nothing because when they rendered assistance, the men’s flesh were already badly burnt.
While “they does talking but killing people”, Brown said he never heard Capital A prisoners talking about committing suicide, but agreed that there were some prisoners caught in the middle between police and prisoners, he said. One of such prisoners, he said would be Ashraf Ally, whom Brown described as “quiet… good man… never heard him curse yet.”
He said too that Marcellus Verbeke, who was injured during the fire, always cooperated with the officers and yet he was caught in the fire.
Being led through evidence by CoI Counsel, Attorney-at-Law Excellence Dazzell, Brown said he has been a prisoner for eight years and is currently serving a 13 year sentence for murder. He said he spends most of his time in his hammock with his phone, and was in his hammock speaking with one of his girlfriends on March 3 when he heard of what was happening outside.
When he looked outside, he noticed inmates from Capital B coming out of their dormitory. He heard prison officers calling again for Capital A prisoners to come out and while the inmates were coming out peacefully, a prisoner named Steve Alicock was the first to be ‘snatched’ by prison officers.
“All I saw was a set of officers with shields come around him and they snatched or pick him up,” Brown said.
He then saw Collison too being snatched by the officers, but could not see what happened to Collison because the officers surrounded him and the shields were “tall”.
Inmates who were next in line saw what transpired and ran back in, pulling the door while they announced that the officers were beating the prisoners. After then, he heard inmates saying they light a matrass.

IN TEARS
He then heard Gladwin Samuels saying, “You’ll lock de door deh let deh burn (expletives) leh deh dead!” At this point during his testimony, Brown broke into tears.
The officers went upstairs with shields and he saw tear smoke coming out of Capital A and felt burning on his own skin.
“Then I saw the lil fire start spread,” Brown said, and inmates in the Old Capital began “hollering for their skin”. He also heard the Capital A inmates hollering for help and he and other prisoners began kicking out boards from the old Capital to break out for the rescue.
He returned to his hammock and watched through the window since he is asthmatic, but he saw when Steve Bacchus and other prisoners started breaking into Capital A with the help of a few officers.
Brown had escaped from prison in November 1997 and was recaptured 25 days after. He escaped again in 2000 from the Mazaruni Prison but was recaptured 10 years later.
He admitted telling prison officers more than once that he was suicidal, but never said he was mean and would burn the jail down and take other people with him.
Brown said while he was on trial for murder, he represented himself, and even though he knew of the existence of the legal aid system, “It do not function with the prison”.