–President Granger

IN AN effort to ease overcrowding at the Georgetown Prisons, the Mazaruni Prisons will be expanded to accommodate an additional 500 prisoners, President David Granger has said.

Speaking on his weekly television programme The Public Interest, the President said the prison infrastructure in Guyana is of the Victorian era, while the Georgetown and New Amsterdam Prisons were built in urban areas with no space for expansion.

Noting that prison officials live on Mazaruni with their families, the President said the area is almost like a little village.

“We are going to develop the farm, so that the Guyana Prison Service becomes more reliant on its own produce. We will develop the workshop so that prisoners can be rehabilitated. We are going to have more secure facilities, so the likelihood of riots in the future will not be a big concern,” the Head of State said.

He said a permanent solution is being sought to address the overcrowding problem, and he noted that the sentencing policy will also be examined, as minor offences will be addressed without incarceration.

“We are aware of the problem, and the solution is not to build more prisons, but to consolidate what we have and spend on Mazaruni,” he said.

Acknowledging that the Ministry of Public Security has challenges, the President said the police, prisons and fire services have taken up a lot of the budget, as financing in these sectors is important to provide citizens with the security and comfort they need.

Long-term, hardcore prisoners will be incarcerated at Mazaruni, he disclosed.

“I would say [the] Georgetown Prison ought not to have more than 500 prisoners, but sometimes it goes up to over 900 prisoners. It is incumbent on the administration to provide accommodation for 500 more prisoners at Mazaruni. We don’t want to increase the prison population, but, at the same time, we want to make sure that persons who commit serious offences are not let loose on the public,” he said.

The 2015 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report said a total of 963 prisoners were in the Georgetown Prison, whereas that facility was designed to hold 550 inmates.

“Overcrowding was in large part due to a backlog of pre-trial detainees, who constituted approximately 11.3 per cent of the total prison population,” the report detailed.

Overall, the report stated that the Guyana Prison Service reported that, as at October 2015, there were 1,944 prisoners in five facilities which had a combined designed capacity to hold 1,640.

Following prison unrest in March of this year, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo led an executive ministerial delegation to meet with representatives of the judiciary, including (acting) Chancellor Carl Singh; Chief Magistrate Ann Mc Lennan, and Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack, to find ways to address the backlog of cases.