–of what happens within the walls of the Georgetown Prison

By Shauna Jemmott

WITH both horrifying revelations and evidence of corruption pouring out before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Georgetown prison riots, there is an increasing thirst for more details of what happens within the gates of Lot 12.

As prisoners voluntarily presented their testimonies, some with controlled vehemence, disclosures of death and threats and various other conditions presented a graphic picture of a daily battle within a small boundary.

Tearfully unmasking their alleged hurts and the injustice meted out to them, prisoners Michael Lewis and Carl Brown both claimed that prison officers could have rescued the men confronted by death, whose lives at the time depended upon “the keys” in the hands of the wardens.

The commission is yet to hear the other side of the story, which must be told by prison officers in their defence. Attorney-at-law Selwyn Pieters, who passionately represents the interest of the Joint Services, including officers of the Guyana Prison Service, one of whom has been almost completely blamed for the death of the prisoners according to the testimonies presented so far, told the media on Tuesday he is hoping that Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels can appear before the panel sooner rather than later.

Pieters said he was disgusted by the way badness was presented almost synonymously with the name of Samuels through media coverage of the CoI, based on the testimonies of prisoners.

Samuels, of all officers, dominated testimonies by the prisoners and questions posed by attorneys and commissioners attached to the commission, based on the evidence presented.

Samuels was also suspended from the job by Government after officials met with prisoners, ending the three-day protest which continued even after 17 lives had already been lost in one violent mid-morning blaze.

As angry as the blaze were the prisoners, who thirsted for betterment and became desperate for public attention after claiming that “nobody cared” and “everybody gah fight fuh deh self.”

HARROWING SIGHT
Steve Bacchus revealed to the commission, “I see a skull on a bed frame,” raising speculation that someone could have been murdered in the dormitory. The prisoner said the head was severed from the body, but he could not believe the Capital ‘A’ inmates, a majority of whom were men on remand charged with heinous crimes, including murder, would have killed one from among themselves.

Roy Jacobs testified that, in 2012, a prisoner complaining of feeling sick made desperate calls for prison officers’ help to seek medical attention from the prison Medex. Jacobs said the prisoner’s calls in the night were never answered, and he was found dead in his cell the next morning.

Jacobs, like prisoner Michael Lewis, had given testimony about a particular treatment meted out to prisoners feeling sick. Lewis, a remanded murder accused, testified on March 15 that prisoners were usually “treated like beasts.” A case in point, he said, was being in pain and asking to see the ‘Chief’, only to be told repeatedly by prison officers to “hold on”.

Noting that the wait could go on for days, Lewis said it was not until the prisoner begins to “bang at the door” that the ‘Chief’ would appear, and help would be forthcoming.

TO GET ATTENTION
Experiencing neglect in desperate situations can lead to rebellion, and the prisoners admitted that they sometimes behaved disorderly — lighting fires and banging doors – simply to get attention.

Jacobs also said that prisoners in frustrating situations sometimes begin to miss their families, and when depression steps in, there is a personal desire for an uprising.

Jacobs also testified earlier that some wardens, seemingly feeling the need to exercise their power, were aggressive at all times, which in turn aggravated inmates. The way Jacobs told it, it was as if Newton’s Law was always in motion down at the Camp Street Jail: “For every action, there’s an equal but opposite reaction.” He said prisoners responded to prison officers based on how officers behaved towards them; and while a respectful officer gets respect in return, one who is disrespectful would naturally be disrespected by prisoners.

Is there a daily war beyond the iron gates? Was that partly responsible for things being blown out of proportion?
Some prisoners accuse a particular senior prison official of being consistently abusive — verbally and physically; even making threats to harm.

Jacobs said the inmates in the officer’s care responded with hostility towards him as a result of his behaviour.

Jacobs testified that at one time in a confrontation with the officer, “he tek out his gun and he tell me he is a Mafia.” Jacobs said that upon complaining to relatives and lawyers about the officer’s threats, he was told to “avoid him.”

But if this is the case, how does a prisoner avoid someone responsible for him? Are prisoners and prison officers walking daily into the enemy’s camp? Should they even be enemies in the first place?

Jacobs, in answering questions posed to him by Commissioner Merle Mendonca, a human rights activist, said, “Everybody gah fight fuh deh self… we’ve been treated like a hog (pig).”

This prisoner has cried “victimisation” among the alarming frustrations of living in the overcrowded Camp Street Georgetown lock-ups.