Cops still hunting prison escapees

It is now one year since remanded murder accused Cobena Stephens escaped from the Camp Street Prisons in Georgetown after that facility had been set on fire. It is also almost one year since convicted murderer Paul Goriah escaped from the holding area of the Lusignan Prisons on the East Coast of Demerara.
Both men are still on the run, and according to Prison Director Gladwin Samuels, the hunt is still on for them.
Stephens, 26, also called “OJ,” formerly of Lot 82 Gopie Street, Middle Walk, Buxton, was on remand on a murder charge when he escaped on July 9, 2017 while prisoners were being transported to the Lusignan Prisons after the July 7, 2017 fire at the Georgetown Prisons.

Goriah, whose last known address was given as Grove Squatting Area, East Bank Demerara, escaped from the Lusignan holding area along with 12 others after he was successfully transported to the said facility.
According to Prisons Director Samuels, while the search is not making headlines in the media, the Prison Service and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) are on the hunt for escaped prisoners.
“While it is not in the news every day, there are a lot of persons who have escaped over the years. Efforts are always being made in order to have these persons recaptured,” Samuels noted.
Samuels disclosed that information pertaining to escaped prisoners is always being circulated with the intention of having them recaptured.
“We would do circulation of names and possible descriptions. We have prison officers who are familiar with these persons who are constantly looking for them in villages that they are from, and so on. We have Police (ranks) who are on general patrol and so on; and (we) have not given up in the hunt for these persons,” he explained.
After the entire penal facility at Camp Street had been destroyed by fire, a decision was made to transport the inmates to the Lusignan Prisons. In the process of being transported, Stephens made good his escape, and has been said to be hiding out in Bartica.
During the fire at the Camp Street Prisons, Lusignan mass killer Mark Royden Williams, ex-cop and double murder accused Uree Varswyk, murder accused Stafrei Alexander and murder accused Desmond James all escaped from the Camp Street penitentiary. One prison officer was left dead and several others injured during that fire.
Varswyk was killed in a shootout with Police in Linden, while Williams, Alexander and James were all recaptured; but Stephens was never found.
Goriah was among the 13 inmates who dug their way out of the Lusignan Prison on July 24 of last year. He remains the only prisoner at large from that batch of escapees.
Goriah and three other men had been charged and remanded to prison for the murder of remigrant agriculturist Anthony Breedy, who was found dead in his Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home in March 2016. It is believed that the men escaped from the swampy pasture of the Lusignan Prison by digging a hole about five feet in length and another five feet in depth under the perimeter fence.
While there are three layers of security at the penitentiary, the men were able to escape presumably during a downpour that occurred in the wee hours on the day of their escape.