CONSTRUCTION of six living quarters at the Mazaruni Prisons of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), along with prison blocks for inmates are set to commence today after cabinet had approved the contract in February last, senior prison sources confirmed.

The contract which was allocated in two lots, saw one lot attracting $41,127,930. That contract has been awarded to N&A Construction. The other lot has attracted $35, 820,000, and awarded to A.A.V Raghubeer General Construction. President David Granger, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan had visited the prison several months ago. The visit related to issues with regard to the living quarters of Prison Officers and construction of more prison blocks to facilitate transfer of prisoners from the Georgetown Prison in an effort to ease the overcrowding at the facility.

During their tour of the Mazaruni Prison, the President and his team not only assessed the living conditions of the prisoners and the prison officers, but interacted with both parties. The staffing population is currently below its 95 quota. There are 54 persons on staff, but the Officer-in-Charge of the prison is hopeful that the staff population could be increased to a maximum of 200. But this move, he said, would require additional living quarters for the prison officers.

“We had a good look at the conditions and what we discovered was that the living quarters for those prison officers, were in a deplorable state and needed attention. “As soon as the prison officers go off of duty, they were going home. It costs them about $10,000 every time they had to travel.” Minister Harmon had said “So if you look at the salary of a prison officer and the fact that he needs to go home and check with his family and so on, we needed to do something to ensure that the conditions under which these officers live are improved.”

The State currently spends over $400,000 on one prisoner per year at the Camp Street penitentiary. Repeat offenders have increased over the years, this, was disclosed in the findings of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Camp Street prison riot that claimed 17 lives following a fire on March 3, 2016.
Cabinet, earlier this year had also agreed to the establishment of a Steering Committee for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-approved US$8 million Criminal Justice System Project.
This project is aimed at assisting Guyana to overcome prison overcrowding, by reducing pre-trial detentions and increasing the use of alternative sentencing, among other measures.

The Committee will comprise representatives of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Supreme Court of Judicature, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Ministry of Public Security, the Social Protection Ministry, and the Ministry of Finance.

The Committee will provide oversight and strategic direction and recommendations, and ensure the coordination of the programme of activities with those of the various Government offices that will be affected by its implementation.

The IDB website states that the loan objective is to contribute meaningfully to addressing the high concentration of the prison population in the country, which stands at 256 per 100,000 of the national population, well above the world average of 146 per 100,000.

The IDB stated: “The Guyanese criminal justice system ‘tends to use incarceration as the default sanction. However, high rates of imprisonment have been associated with an individual’s future proclivity for crime and difficulties in securing employment, among other negative factors. Building or expanding prison facilities can be a short-term fix for overcrowding, but if root causes are not addressed, the new facilities will eventually be filled.”