–after reports of officers beating prisoners

By Shauna Jemmott
ANOTHER prisoner who testified yesterday before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the prison deaths said that after deceased prisoner Shaka McKenzie ran back into Capital ‘A’ and announced that officers were beating prisoners, “everything went AY (haywire).”Roy Jacobs, who has been a prisoner at the Camp Street penitentiary for five years on a murder charge, is incarcerated on the ‘Woods Division’ of the prison.
Being led through evidence by the Commission’s Counsel, Excellence Dazzell, Jacobs said that on March 3rd, he saw Officer-in-Charge of the Georgetown Prison, Kevin Pilgrim, and three other prison officers visit Capital ‘A’ and were guiding prisoners out five at a time to accommodate a search.

He said he observed the prison’s Task Force apprehending prisoner Steve Allicock and taking him to the front of the prison yard. After they also apprehended Collis Collison, popularly called ‘Juvenile’, prisoners all over the prison yard began shouting to the officers to “leave Juvenile alone”; and Shaka McKenzie, who was already brought downstairs, ran back up the Capital ‘A’ stairs saying, “Officers beating prisoners!”
IN CHARGE
The prisoner said it was then that Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels “appeared from nowhere out of the blues and shouted aloud that he in charge.” He said Samuels brandished a firearm and “cock it” (place a bullet into the chamber) before he asked for an inmate by the name of Germaine Otto.

Otto was one of the seventeen prisoners who perished in the March 3 fire which was lit by prisoners during a riot at the Camp Street jail.

Jacobs said Samuels and Otto had a long-standing issue, and Samuels had previous issues with other prisoners too, including Jacobs.

According to the prisoner, Samuels then went around the side and took out a bottle of tear gas and throw it into the building. “After he throw it in, smoke start coming more and the fire blaze up”. He said a prison officer by the name of Cozier went around to render help to the inmates, but backed off because of the heat. It was then that Samuels told him to “leave the door…they light it.”

He said bricks were being pelted and words were being exchanged. “After that I hear bow! (sound of a gunshot) and big screaming start.”

He said he and Samuels had had a confrontation in 2013, and the officer had drawn his firearm and pointed it at him. “He always advantage prisoners. He mocked at prisoners while punishing them. For instance, if prisoners are playing football and a ball hit him, he would put them to run around the tarmac, and mocked and laughed while they did as he ordered.

While other officers were there, the prisoner said, Samuels was in charge on March 3.

Under cross-examination by Attorney-at-law Dexter Todd, Jacobs said: “Nobody cares, and therefore prisoners light fires to get the attention of the bigger heads,” including Officer-in-Charge Kevin Pilgrim, to attend to their problems.

Jacobs said he saw little smoke emanating from the Capital ‘A’ building shortly before tear gas was thrown into the building, but the fire began blazing immediately after. At that time, prisoners from his dormitory were moved to the ‘Wire’ section of the prison, from where he was no longer able to see what was happening at Capital ‘A’.

Jacobs said that at the time of the rebellion the prison yard was noisy, but he could have heard some of the officers speaking in the prison yard. Though he and Samuels had a problem previously, he would never mislead the commission about the officer’s attitude on March 3, Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that after the blaze was put out and surviving inmates were rescued from the fiery Capital ‘A’ building, he and other prisoners were taken back into the Woods Capital, and he saw the dead being removed from the Capital ‘A’ dormitory.

RECOOKING FOOD
Jacobs said he was an inmate of Capital ‘A’ for three years, but was removed sometime last year; and while he was resident in that dorm, prisoners had lit fires, using baby oil and tissue, to recook foods they were served because it was not always properly cooked. They cooked in the same ‘pan tops’ in which they were served the foods.

Under cross-examination by Barrister-at-law Selwyn Pieters, who is representing the Joint Services, Jacobs said both senior officers and regular wardens were at Capital ‘A’ on March 3 before the fire started, supervising the exit of prisoners out of the department in an orderly manner. About 25 to 30 prisoners had already exited the building.

He said that when Collis Collison, aka ‘Juvenile’, was snatched, some of the officers pulled him by the shackles and an officer had pressed Collison to the ground by placing his knee on the prisoner’s chest. Collison was hollering for Mr. Pilgrim, asking, “What is this going on here?” and sometime after, he noticed officers picking the prisoner up and taking him away.

“Shaka McKenzie was hollering, ‘they beating inmates!’ and he ran back up inside. After Shaka McKenzie went back into the building, everything went AY.”

Jacobs said he could not remember which officer had locked the prison door, but he recalled seeing officers “Lyken and Shepherd” standing together at that point and “making laugh”.

Jacobs said that OC Kevin Pilgrim and other officers were getting things done in a calm way, and while prisoners were making noise, there was no riot at the time.

Samuels appeared, and Shaka McKenzie ran back up, and Capital ‘B’ was evacuated.

“Mr. Samuels came from out of de blues and he tek ignorance and mix it with intelligence,” Jacobs iterated, adding that no officer attended to the fire, but instead an inmate had run to the prisoners’ rescue.

Jacobs will take the stand again today, during which Pieters will continue his cross-examination of the witness.