BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRISIONERS in Guyana late yesterday afternoon (July 9) set three fires to the country’s major penitentiary in a bid to create a diversion, which resulted in the facility and the Prison Officers Sports Club being burnt to the ground.
The fires, which were lit shortly after 4:00 p.m. at the Camp Street Prison, was a diversion tactic employed in a bid for several prisoners to escape from the facility, according to SKNVibes’ colleague on the ground, Jevone Vickerie of HGP Nightly News.
According to information obtained by SKNVibes, approximately 1,018 prisoners were housed at the facility which is located in the heart of the Capital City, Georgetown.
Vickerie told this media house that two fires were set simultaneously to the wooden structures in the prison compound and they quickly spread to neighbouring buildings housing inmates.
Shortly after, Prison Officers began moving the inmates to their sports clubs just a few yards from the facility for safe housing until they could have been transported to other facilities around the country, SKNVibes learnt.
While being housed there, the prisoner reportedly opened bottles of Smirnoff Vodka, pour the contents on their jerseys and shirts, lit them and set the building on fire, which resulted in that structure being razed to the ground.
SKNVibes confirmed with police sources that five prisoners are still on the run.
Guyana’s Minister of Social Cohesion, Volda Lawrenece confirmed last evening that seven Prison Officers sustained gunshot and other injuries and were rushed to the hospital.
However, Prison Officer Odinga Wain Wickham had succumbed to his injuries while receiving medical treatment.
Like many prison facilities around the region, including St. Kitts and Nevis, that one was also overcrowded.
SKNVibes was informed that the prison had a capacity to house just about 700 inmates; however, there was a population of just over 1,000 housed there, many of whom are on remand.
Speaking with reporters this morning, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Osmond Petty said that they are not looking at having a similar incident occurring in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Confessing that he does not have all the information in relation to that incident, Petty pointed out that there is an urgent need for a new prison facility in St. Kitts.
“We want to ensure that nothing like that happens. And the cramped facilities at Her Majesty’s Prison right now needs to be addressed very urgently. So it is very important that we get a new prison going in the near future.”
Back in Guyana, police, prison and government officials conducted a walkthrough of the burnt facility and indicated that from early indications they had not seen any remains of prisoners in the compound.
It was noted, though, that the prisoners used improvised weapons to hold the prison officers hostage at one point before setting the facility on fire.
This is not the first time a Prison Officer was killed at the facility. During a daring jailbreak on February 23, 2002 involving five desperate criminals - Andrew Douglas, Dale Moore, Shawn Browne, Mark Fraser and Troy Dick – a male Prison Officer was killed and a female Prison Officer, Roxanne Winfield, was shot to the head.
She is still alive but has lost a portion of her brain that controls her speech, only sees out of one eye and is unable to walk.
Also, this is not the first time that inmates had set fire to the Georgetown Prison.
On March 3, 2016, 17 prisoners had reportedly died and several others injured after fires were started during a protest at the same facility.
The fires were started by inmates housed in the Capital Offence section of the prison during renewed unrest from the previous night.
