First it was hunger strike, which has since been aborted.
Last Thursday morning Kevon King, 19, was pronounced dead on arrival
at the Arima District Hospital following a violent altercation in
the bathroom.
One inmate blamed his unfortunate death on the poor conditions under
which they are forced to exist daily.
“You have to fight for everything, the murder was in the bathroom,
is 400 big men to use three taps every morning.
“Man have grouse with each other so when they get to the bathroom
is always a fight.
“Any little thing will trigger off your enemy,” he added.
King, who was on Remand Yard awaiting an appeal, was stabbed to
death during the incident which involved four other inmates.
Three inmates have since been charged with King’s murder while
another suspect remains hospitalised.
“What’s happening here is just the tip of the iceberg,”
he again warned, “the worst is still to come from some of
these frustrated prisoners.”
A few days ago outside the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court,
prisoners staged a revolt as they were being loaded into an Amalgamated
Security prisons van.
Cops from the Riot Squad were forced into action.
Several prisoners were injured.
From inside the prison van, they strongly protested the conditions
under which they were being transported from prison to courts around
the country.
TnT Mirror was told that in some cases there were 22 men to one
prison truck.
“Some of the prisoners are infected with TB, AIDS and all
kinds of other contagious diseases.
“We have to squeeze up between them.”
He said there were 11 prisoners on either side of vehicle and because
of poor ventilation; breathing is often a major problem.
“To tell you how bad things are in the prison truck, the seats
assigned to two prison officers are never ever taken.
“They are supposed to be sitting there with their radio in
the event of emergency to and from the prisons, but they never come
in the back there.
“These officers refuse to sit in the back because they can’t
take the stench, they don’t want to contract any disease.
“They don’t ever know what’s going on with us,
we could die in the back there.”
But not only are there breathing problems, he complained that prisoners
also suffer injury whenever the driver mash brakes.
“The iron in the cages is very sharp causing us even more
pain.”
Reports reaching Mirror stated that prisoner; Hassan Atwell who
was injured in the fracas outside the court, was refused entry when
he returned to Golden Grove Prison.
“Prison authorities didn’t want the responsibility so
they sent him all the way back to San Fernando where he got his
injury for medical attention and a report.”
Atwell, who has bullets lodged in his foot, has sine returned to
Remand Yard.
The protesting prisoners were also calling for the removal of Magistrate
Mark Wellington who sits at the San Fernando Magistrate’s
Court.
“He’s been there for three years, and there’s
no end to problems,” he stated.
“He’s responsible for ‘fulling up’ the jail
right now.”
The inmate on Remand Yard spoke of a young man who stole 10 ripe
mangoes and was placed between some hardened criminals in a cell.
“For 10 mangoes or a five piece, you send up a man and have
him mixing between some hardened criminals, these things must change,
that’s why we are fighting from the inside.
Another prisoner spoke of “panadol” they are given no
matter what their sickness.
“The doctor examines us from far, the prison conditions are
bad, bad, bad and we feel those of us who come in here for petty
crimes and do not have convictions should be given bail.
“We want the government to listen to us.”
Well-known local DJ/entertainer Starchild (Marinus Ayres) who faces
serious drug trafficking charges, in an interview earlier on with
Mirror spoke out about strongly about the existing conditions.
He didn’t mince words when he said: “I prefer to die
than make a jail.”
It was Starchild’s short stay in Remand Yard awaiting bail
and he felt compelled to speak out against conditions, he too warning,
“too much testosterone lock down in jail was dangerous”.
He detailed extensively to Mirror the challenges an inmate faces
daily.
“You are waking and sleeping in filth, one has to be careful
how he twists and turns.
“The plastic bucket to urinate in and gazette paper with filth
have to watch you till six o’clock next morning.
“The scent emanating from the waste, that alone will make
you sick.”
Starchild recalled a young man collapsing when he was brought into
Remand Yard.
He felt it was the government’s responsibilities too ensure
more humane conditions and rehabilitation for prisoners.
“The country is spending millions here, there and everywhere
and it may be time to erect another State prison centre,”
Starchild said in the interview.
He begged that they act before it’s too late.
Asked another prisoner: “What is our black brother, the man
with the dreadlocks Fitzgerald Hinds who is Junior Minister of National
Security doing for us in here?
“Is he just about doing PR for the government?
“Come on Remand Yard, come and smell, come and see first hand
for your self”.
Mirror was told that promises made to inmates last week in an effort
to have them end their hunger strike has not been fulfilled.
“They pass around taking names of persons without mattresses,
we still waiting, we eh see Ombudsman, we eh see CJ but let them
know not because we start back to eat things are back to normal.
“One man dead already, next time might be an officer …”
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