Prison repairs to take place this year – Superintendent

DURING THIS YEAR, the prison authorities will focus on improving living conditions, with bunk and building repairs, the Superintendent of the Prisons has indicated.

Last week, during the sentencing of two prisoners, Justice Brian Cottle noted that during a visit to Her Majesty’s Prisons, he found the conditions there “appalling”. Further he stated that he did not understand how a person who has once had that experience would risk ever having it repeated, and therefore was puzzled at the statistics showing a high number of repeaters.

Earlier this week, Superintendent of the Prisons, Brenton Charles, told SEARCHLIGHT that he could agree with Cottle “to a certain degree.”

“It’s strange, because the inmates themselves complain from time to time, you see articles appearing in the newspaper about the quality of the food, the quality of the living conditions, but you still find people repeating themselves,” the Superintendent stated.

He however said one of the issues affecting the Kingstown lock up, which was built in 1872, was its age. “Whilst Belle Isle (Belle Isle Correctional Institution) on the other hand is a basically new facility, with its own challenges as well, but living accommodation in Belle Isle is far better than what exists in Kingstown,” he explained.

He admitted that “to some degree” that the prison was overcrowded, and referred to an occasion where, during a public speaking competition, an inmate spoke about a problem of infestation by bed bugs.

“Now it must be noted that the…conditions in the [Kingstown] prison, present conditions, really a lot of it was created by the inmates themselves,” the Superintendent said, speaking about a disturbance in 1999, during which all the toilet facilities were destroyed.

“These things cost money, you can’t just install things and people destroy them and you just install them again, maybe to be destroyed again, it’s difficult,” he continued.

He said during this year, plans are in place to replace the bunks and do repairs to the Kingstown building where necessary. Further, the general cleanliness of the institution will be examined.

“I think it’s for us, the entire criminal justice system, for us to take a deep hard look at the prisons, what exists, what should be, and make attempts really, to get to…a place where all could be satisfi ed and comfortable,” he said.

SEARCHLIGHT reached out to someone with intimate knowledge of the conditions at the prison, who stated that the conditions are “horrible” in the sense that there is overcrowding in Kingstown. The individual said that there are certain cells where upwards of 20 persons are held.

As at December 17, 2018, according to the Prison Status Report presented at the High Court, the overall prison population was 472, with 20 of these being women. The Belle Isle facility, which was built to accommodate 288 persons presently houses 234 prisoners.

Our source also commented that there was a “serious bug situation”, bad toilet facilities and insufficient bunks in Kingstown. “Not many of them have bunks to sleep on, and you have a lot of them sleeping on the floor on blankets.” On the other hand, this person said that there are no issues with the food.