…as hunt on for 3 prison escapees in Guyana
More than 12 hours after the disturbances at Lusignan Prison, the Public Security Ministry has finally issued a release, which confirmed that eight persons were shot and injured, but only six had to seek medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Those injured are Cleveland Williams, Lester Joseph, Teaive Cush, Raymond Jones, Corwyn Arthur, Anirudh Prashad, Lakeram Singh and Lexroy Rigby.
According to the Public Security Ministry, wardens resorted to discharging live rounds of ammunition of various calibres to calm the inmates after the rubber bullets did not work. At this time, the release stated, inmates were behaving in a riotous manner.
“The prisoners hurled hundreds of missiles directly at officers, damaged the inner Holding Bay fences and exited the confined area. They then focused their attention on gaining access to the gate that allows exit from the location by using several items to hit the gate, but they were unsuccessful in their attempt,” the Ministry stated.
It also confirmed that at the time of the incident, there were 558 prisoners in the facility along with 80 personnel from the Prisons Service, Guyana Police Force and the Fire Service.
The authorities are holding out that several attempts were made by officers and ranks to enter the location with the use of shields, but the large number and size of the missiles hurled by prisoners caused them to retreat and run to safety.
However, as darkness approached, the prisoners reportedly continued to throw missiles thus damaging four perimeter lights.
The furious inmates who were reportedly protesting the conditions of the holding bays resorted to setting ablaze mattress and pallets which they placed along the inside of the fence. This, the authorities claimed, caused damage to the monitoring room which controls the CCTV cameras.
“After repeated attempts to have the prisoners desist from their riotous behaviour failed, officers reverted to the use of rubber pellets. As this approach also failed, various calibres of live rounds were directed in the air,” the release added.
After some time, the inmates became calm and requested an audience with the acting Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels. During this engagement, Samuels was made aware that several prisoners did not receive their lunch.
Other issues such as the physical infrastructure of the facility, the length of imprisonment and the way some junior ranks delivered their duties were also raised by the inmates.
Nevertheless, the situation remained calm up until 23:00h when prisoners from Holding Bay One and Two were seen breaking the inner fence. As such, the security presence was increased. The situation was under control just about 00:30h. Hours prior to the riot, three inmates escaped from the correctional facility.
The prisoners, 23-year-old Travis Evans of C Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown; Sudesh Dyal, 23, of Wales Backdam, West Bank Demerara and Dexroy Pollard, 29, of Wales Village are still on the run with the Joint Services making every attempt to recapture them.
Of the three, Evans was incarcerated for murder while Pollard was convicted for breaking and entering and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and Dyal was on remand for breaking and entering.
Prison authorities confirmed that the escapees scaled the fence between towers three and four which were equipped with security personnel about 04:30h.
The acting Director of Prisons told a media briefing on Monday afternoon that after reviewing the footage, he came to the conclusion that the ranks on duty were not alert.
Samuels explained that the three men took a considerable amount of time to make their way through the razor wire.
“It is clear, especially taking into consideration the close proximity of the two towers and the number of ranks deployed in those two towers that those ranks were not alert,” the acting Prisons Director stated.
Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation told Guyana Times International that disciplinary action would be taken against the guards who were sleeping when the men escaped.
The Lusignan Prison was used as a holding facility with several holding areas after the July 2017 fire at the Camp Street Prison. During that fire, several high-profile prisoners had escaped. The others were dispatched to correctional institutions across the country, including Lusignan.
