By Ariana Gordon
FORMER prisoner of the Georgetown Prison, Patrick Narine yesterday told the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Camp Street jail riots and fire deaths that the Officer-in-Charge of the penitentiary is ‘unfit’ to be its head.Narine, who served 37 months in jail on a trafficking in narcotics charge, told the three-man Commission comprising Chairman, Justice (retired) James Patterson and Commissioners Dale Erskine and Merle Mendonca that Superintendent of Prisons Kevin Pilgrim’s behaviour towards prisoners disqualified him from being the best candidate to run the Georgetown Prison.

The former truck driver and vendor during cross-examination by Attorney for the Joint Services Selwyn Pieters was asked to relate to the Commission his qualifications to make such an assertion against Pilgrim.
“Have you ever worked in law enforcement? Have you ever been a police officer, a prison officer, a soldier? Have you ever been to a college that trains officers to work in a prison? Have you ever been to a university?” the attorney asked all to which he received the same answer, “no”.

REQUISITE COMPETENCE
Based on Narine’s evidence before the panel, Pieters put it to him that he lacked the requisite competence to state that Pilgrim was not best suited for the job.

“I am going to suggest to you, you have no competence to make that assertion… ” said the attorney who was rebutted by Narine.

“If you are an officer-in-charge of a jail and you are going to tell the general population that if you can’t get along we are going to push you in one cell so you can kill each other. You are going to do the necessary paperwork after, then you are not capable of doing your work because you are not setting no example.”

But Pieters insisted that what Pilgrim said “is a Guyanese saying”. “Your mother would have told you that if you and your brother were fighting and not listening to her instructions, she would have told you that, y’all kill y’all selves if y’all gonna continue fighting”, said Pieters.

“TAKING IT TOO FAR”
But the former prisoner begged to differ and told the Joint Services attorney that it is facts that are of importance and not opinions. “That is your opinion, that’s not a fact…please don’t insult my intelligence or try to put words in my mouth like you did to other prisoners …” said Narine who was upbraided by Justice Patterson who told him he is “taking it too far.”

The attorney during his cross-examination of Narine stressed that the former prisoner was labelling the officer-in-charge of the Camp Street jail inept because of a “beef” he had with him. According to Pieters, Narine was upset because Superintendent Pilgrim transferred him from the Berbice Correctional facility to the Lusignan Prison because he “misconducted” himself.

“No I didn’t …I was transferred because I was a shoe maker in jail…the officer-in-charge at the Lusignan Prison was the second officer in charge at the Berbice correctional facility …she knows me very well as a shoe maker. She had some shoes to do for the officers and she apparently remembered that I did that in Berbice jail…she contacted the Berbice jail to get permission, which she did,” he stated.

He maintained that he had no issues with the officer-in-charge of the Georgetown Prison.

Narine testified that on March 3, he observed Pilgrim with a gun in his hand which he “cranked”. Unlike the prisoners who testified before him, Narine said Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels carried a gun in his waist.

He too testified that he heard Samuels instruct his juniors to lock the access door to Capital Block ‘A’. “You would have seen Senior Superintendent Samuels and Superintendent Pilgrim shouting to the top of their lungs for the prisoners to come out voluntary. You heard that!” declared Pieters.

“No,” said Narine who then made it clear that the duo (Samuels and Pilgrim) were not shouting to the prisoners of Capital ‘A’ Division but to those in Capital ‘B’ Division.

“I am going to put it to you that it was ‘A’ Division because ‘B’ Division evacuated itself voluntarily,” said the attorney.

But the former prisoner maintained that the suggestion by the Joint Services lawyer was flawed.

“Mr Pilgrim went up with his gun and cranked his gun and gave inmates an order that this is the last order I am giving you … when he went up to the Capital ‘B’,” stated Narine, who was the first to state that Samuels was not the gun-brandishing prison officer.

Narine served time in the Camp Street penitentiary from November 2015 and was released on March 17. He was due to be released on April 6. He was sentenced to 32 months in jail and he began serving his time on July 18, 2013.

The former inmate told the Commission that the blame for the death of the 17 inmates ought not to fall squarely at the feet of the prison officers.
“I want to say that prison officials are not the ones to be blamed for this…because I read articles in the paper…for 23 years the previous administration run this country there was nothing … in place for this new administration to pick up…it is kinda disturbing because I see there is going to be some real friction with this investigation…the previous administration had enough time to fix all these issues,” said Narine.

Asked what he would recommend officials put in place at the prison, Narine said he wants to see a corresponding programme and an inmate’s grievance programme.