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Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, on Monday, shared that a number of prisoners have already been identified as having allegedly creating the riot and starting the fire, last Sunday, which completely demolished the Lusignan Prisons, which at the time housed 284 prisoners.
Of the 284 prisoners: 27 have since been transported to the Georgetown Prisons (Camp Street Prison); 51 have been moved to the Timehri Prisons; 50 were transported to the Mazaruni Prisons; while the remaining 156 prisons have been accommodated at the Lusignan Prisons holding bay facility, where they join some 425 prisoners that were already there.
Some eleven prisoners were injured in the fire, however most mainly suffered minor injuries and were treated by on site doctors. Only two prisoners were transferred for treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). However those patients have since been returned to the prisons.
Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels said the prisoners started riot after they demanded that a quantity of contraband substances be returned to a prisoner, from whom they had been seized. The seizure of the contraband, was compounded by the simultaneous occurrence of a confrontation between different prisoner and with a prison officer.
“There was a discovery of a quantity of contraband, two parcels of cannabis, a bottle with rum and a cell phone. It was not a search conducted, an officer observed the prisoner with the parcel and searched the prisoner,” Samuels said.
After the items were not returned to the prisoner, Samuels said, a riot erupted and the prisoners began to destroy the prisons building and subsequently set the fire. Due to the aged nature of the building the fire spread very quickly and little could be done to save the building.
For the prisoners identified as having allegedly setting the fire, investigations continue as to what punishment will be instituted against the prisoners if found guilty.
“There were some names we received, eight prisoners have been named, and we are aware of who they are and the police have been furnished with that information. It is just information we received not yet confirmed,” Samuels, explained at a press conference on Monday.
During the press briefing, Samuels noted that subsequent to Senior Superintendent Alexander Hopkinson being appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Prison, there has been an increase in the seizures of contraband items. The decrease of the contraband items is thought to have possible agitated the prisoners.
“It was clearly overheard that prisoners said there is a drought in the prison as relates to contraband,” Samuels pointed out.
Samuels said the two agitating situations at the prisons was discovered at approximately midday on Sunday.
In the situation with the confrontation between the prisoner and the prison guard, Samuels explained that: “A prisoner who works in the kitchen had a confrontation with a prisoner officer. It was brought to my attention that the prisoner was assaulted by one of the officers and escorted to the prison yard, where he was again assaulted.”
The prison guard involved is no longer at the prisons, to avoid any further tension between the prisoners and the guards at the prison. However Samuels noted that the confrontation between the prisoner and the guard, is still being investigated, with reports being that the guards were being threatened and attacked by the prisoner at the time of the confrontation.
Samuels clarified that there was no political motive behind the situation that unfolded at the prisons, however some prisoners did make insinuating remarks after attention for the situation grew.
During the evacuation of prisoners from the Lusignan Prisons, several were found to be in possession of weapons including knives and cutlasses. One such prisoner refused to hand over a 22” cutlass that was discovered on his person, and guards fired a warning shot in the air, after which the prisoner promptly handed over the weapon.
Samuels said warning shots were also fired when some prisoners made attempts to escape, however their attempts were averted thanks to the joint effort of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Guyana Police Force (GPF), which were on the ground last Sunday assisting the prison guards contain the prisoners.
A GDF helicopter was also dispatched to the seen and kept watch overhead as the situation developed.
