PRISON officers of the Lusignan Prison have foiled the escape plot of two inmates committed to stand trial in the High Court.

The action by the prison staff between Thursday and Friday morning thwarted the bid by the two prisoners who are charged with murder.

According to reports, the discovery was made during a routine search of the facility, when a steel bar was found to have been cut, and attempts made to do likewise with another.
Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels has said that from observation, the cutting of the second bar was to allow easier exit.

Due to the nature of the housing unit and the Standard Operating Procedures, he said, the two would-be escapees should not have been in possession of a cutting tool, moreso being allowed to actually use it.

The police have since been called in to investigate the matter fully, while the security classification of the two felons has been upgraded.

Additional layers of security have also been put in place, Samuels said.
On July 24, 2017, 13 prisoners had escaped from the Lusignan Prison through a makeshift underground conduit.

The men were discovered missing when a head count was made. Reports were that they’d dug a hole in the ground at the pasture within the confines of the prison, and covered the area to avoid detection by prison officials.

Then when the time was opportune, the men continued digging the hole until they were able to flee the prison.

“And how they do it, police nor soldiers nor the prison authorities could have seen how it happen, because they do it in an angle,” a police source had told the Guyana Chronicle at the time.

Around that time, prisoners had been moved to the Lusignan facility after the Camp Street Prison was set on fire following a riot which was started by inmates on July 9, 2017.
During the ensuing melee, a prison warder was killed, while several inmates escaped. Some were later recaptured or killed by lawmen.