– Ramjattan says trying his best with little resources

EVEN with no international loans available for prison infrastructure development in Guyana and present limited resources, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan says that works are being done to improve prison conditions.

At an Alliance For Change (AFC) press conference on Wednesday, Ramjattan noted the difficulty of managing Guyana’s age-old prison structures with a small budget.
Just Monday night, unrest broke out at the Lusignan Prison/Holding Bay after inmates protested for food and water conditions.

The unrest saw a fire being started and several prisoners being shot just hours after three prisoners escaped from the holding facility.

Explaining the challenges, the minister said: “We can’t put them in circumstances outside of Lusignan because I tell you honestly, its 558 prisoners we’re talking about and that has been caused by the inmates burning down Camp Street [prison]. But as best as possible, in the circumstances, we are trying.

“We did [improvements on] facilities at Lusignan Holding Bay to ensure their security and, of course, it is not the best… but in my circumstances I don’t know what better I can do.”
However, he added that what the ministry can do at the moment is look into and address the complaints of prisoners pertaining to water and food. “Indeed, I have given instruction to the DoP [Director of Prisons] but he has indicated that they have been getting good food and water and all of that. We will try to better the water because they were saying all manner of things about the water,” Ramjattan stated.

He added that the prisoners have also been given pallets on which to place their mattresses for resting at nights, but they continue to be very destructive with the materials.

“They have now burnt about half of the amount of mattresses we gave them there and the pallets. So, it is an extraordinarily difficult circumstance and I don’t have any other suggestion that can better that… they even destroyed the gated areas within holding bay 1, holding bay 2 and holding bay 3,” he said.

To improve the infrastructure of Guyana’s prisons, Ramjattan said he has made contact with several international money-lending agencies but, thus far, has received no satisfactory responses.

“I did tell them of our circumstances. We have now gotten the monies to do the Mazaruni [prison] which will accommodate in the vicinity of about 300 prisoners. We have paid off steel cells to rehabilitate, by the end of another four months, the Camp Street Prison which will accommodate another 140 prisoners.

“I went internationally, too, to ask for a loan and IMF said they don’t give loans for prisons; World Bank said they don’t give loans for prisons; IDB said ‘no way,’ they don’t give loans for prisons. So I had to tell them you’re making my police force better to increase people that we arrest and put in the prisons and you’re not helping out by giving me a loan for prisons?,” Ramjattan said.

He explained further that money for development now needs to be taken from the treasury and this presents a great predicament, as there is much difficulty in prioritising limited resources.

“We have tremendously other big priorities. Severance pay for sugar workers, teachers’ salary increases, all kinds of things. The minute you take from [them] to build some prison people will start cussing,” he stated.

However, the public security minister assured: “But expect with greater revenue streams coming from the oil-and-gas sector, we have the plans that will take care of major projects for more prisons and so on.”