Readers Response

Dear Editor:
Corruption kills. It also wounds and burns and menaces. Those who disagree can ask the families of those now pained by the loss of their own and from injuries inflicted in last week Sunday’s prison conflagration. The objectors can also check with the grieving family of Alicea Foster who was mowed down, and that of Levoy Taljit who just disappeared because he represented something honourable. Corruption is embedded in this nation’s soul, and the flames from the jail’s inferno presented citizens with the fireworks of its scorching heat and powerful reach.
An uprising it is called; well, it was that and then some more. Those who see corruption as immersed in the innocence of white collar activities and reduced to the nonchalance of a ‘lil frek’ or a ‘raise’ do well to look at what was razed to the ground. There are so many stories, all ugly, that reside in those embers. Unless this corruption beast prowling in the midst is recognized for what it truly is, then more will have to be paid. And that is by everyone, including those who never looked at a dirty dime.
The prison fire/uprising offers a lesson in commonsense and of justice and corrections practices too. Someone is hauled before the courts on a charge, a narcotics charge. There is the now telltale silence of a single word: guilty. Then there follows the ritual as encompassed by all of two words: four years. It is four years for two kilos, and the same four years for two hundred. Money talks in the thunder of that silence, eerie, far-reaching, ominous, and all so knowing. It talks all the way into the prison system, and not just for the narcotics convicted, but to any who can afford the fare. Business is brisk.
The convicted and now sentenced is well taken care of while in the prison system. Money is the lubricant; on Sunday at Camp Street, it transformed into an accelerant. This business of paid passage and traffic in the prison starts with simple contraband: weed and WhatsApp (cellphones); soon and somewhere in that not-so-innocent commercial mix come weapons. Agents of the state were not the only ones firing during the uprising.
Again, corruption is not merely white-collar; it is red as in bloodshed, and on Sunday it was red hot. I know of families that had to evacuate themselves; blood pressure rising, heart racing, and asthma suffocating. The clinical might call it collateral damage, but at the end of the trail, the afflictions originated with those so-called respectable citizens, increasingly so and increasingly camouflaged, who are behind the paying. These are the people who paid for that silence in court, and continue to pay to cushion stays in jail, if there are any stays at all, so as to ensure continued adherence to the code of silence. Omerta in action and Guyanese style.
The paying citizens are those with a lot of easy cash. They could very well be the ones socialized with, partnered with, or defended and given cover. There may not be a formal structure and organization in the local corruption context; but there is undeniably one vast sprawling network (perhaps more than one) of facilitators on the inside (think the Republic Bank incident), intermediaries in lots of places (observe tainted members of the police and rural police in action in that same robbery), and treasurers (assorted venture or vulture capitalists engaged in some business pretence), and which are now embedded in almost every sector of this society.
It is why I say as spotlights are rightfully shone on constitutional reform (vital) and soon-to-be prison reform (necessary), it would be well for the conscientious and law abiding citizens, especially the well-intentioned, to discern that all of the constructive things on the table will only be meaningful and successful if there is character reform. There has to be national character reform before any semblance of substantive progress can be attained. Otherwise, exercises are reduced to a heap of talking and also rather regrettably a few more Sundays (in whatever form) like this now fateful one.
GHK Lall via email

July 19, 2017 issue
Readers' Response
Wake-up calls at the Camp St jail ignored
Dear Editor: Have the authorities been aware of the goings-on in the prisons in Guyana over the past 15 months? Below I list chronologically a few of the shocking incidents that were reported in the media regarding prisoners in Guyana’s most secure jail, following the March 3, 2016 prison fiasco where 17 prisoners were burnt to death after they clashed with police and prison authorities. Under the caption, ‘Seized items are returned to prison officers - Commander Hicken’, GT on April 16, 2016, stated, “the Commission heard the shocking revelation that prison wardens are the ones that sell mobile phones to prisoners. This was the testimony of Carl Brown, an inmate who is currently severing 13 years for murder. It was explained that prisoners can purchase the mobile devices for $7000 in the Camp Street Prison. Brown told Commissioners that he has his seventh phone since being behind bars, and admitted that he would often update his Facebook account about life in prison…Brown had also told the Commission that whenever a phone is seized, a fee is paid and the phone is returned.” On May 16, 2016, KN reported that a check on the Georgetown prison “unearthed 44 cell phones, 30 cell phone batteries and approximately 173 improvised weapons that included kitchen knives, screwdrivers and a hacksaw blade” and “a quantity of razor blades, lighters, files and tattoo machines”. SN, under the caption, ‘Prison raids uncover weapons, phones, drugs’, (Nov 13, 2016), declared, “According to a Ministry of Presidency statement, at the Georgetown Prison 21 improvised weapons and knives, 20 razor blades, 558 grammes of marijuana, 22 cellular phones and five gallons of homemade wine, along with a number of other banned items were found. It added that a lesser number of similar items were found at the New Amsterdam Prison. “The statement noted that the security forces are gravely concerned by the recovery of such a large haul of contraband at the Georgetown Prison, which was only last searched just under two months ago on September 23, 2016”. On Feb 12, 2017, Leroy Smith, of the Newsroom.gy outlet reported that a prisoner had escaped from the Camp Street jail. The prisoner scaled the fence “of what is supposed to be a highly-secured facility”. After these publicly-known critical incidents, did the authorities take any drastic steps to mitigate the chance of flare-up or escape? One would expect that each such incident was a vigorous wake-up call for a possible revolt. How could the authorities not see the writing on the wall? The authorities have no excuse. The Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan and the Director of Prisons, Gladwyn Samuels, should resign, following the razing of the Georgetown Prison on July 9. The Guyanese people have had to bear the torment of criminals on a day-to-day basis; this prison debacle is more than too much. The prison should not be rebuilt at the present site since there have been numerous incidents of persons throwing contraband items over the fence to aid a prison revolt and escape. I agree with the many who think it is prudent to build such an institution on one of Guyana’s many islands. The authorities obviously are impotent in handling the prison situation. They should, therefore, seek help urgently and desperately from one of the ‘ABC’ countries to diffuse the situation. Devanand Bhagwan via email

Corruption was red hot in the jail inferno
Dear Editor: Corruption kills. It also wounds and burns and menaces. Those who disagree can ask the families of those now pained by the loss of their own and from injuries inflicted in last week Sunday’s prison conflagration. The objectors can also check with the grieving family of Alicea Foster who was mowed down, and that of Levoy Taljit who just disappeared because he represented something honourable. Corruption is embedded in this nation’s soul, and the flames from the jail’s inferno presented citizens with the fireworks of its scorching heat and powerful reach. An uprising it is called; well, it was that and then some more. Those who see corruption as immersed in the innocence of white collar activities and reduced to the nonchalance of a ‘lil frek’ or a ‘raise’ do well to look at what was razed to the ground. There are so many stories, all ugly, that reside in those embers. Unless this corruption beast prowling in the midst is recognized for what it truly is, then more will have to be paid. And that is by everyone, including those who never looked at a dirty dime. The prison fire/uprising offers a lesson in commonsense and of justice and corrections practices too. Someone is hauled before the courts on a charge, a narcotics charge. There is the now telltale silence of a single word: guilty. Then there follows the ritual as encompassed by all of two words: four years. It is four years for two kilos, and the same four years for two hundred. Money talks in the thunder of that silence, eerie, far-reaching, ominous, and all so knowing. It talks all the way into the prison system, and not just for the narcotics convicted, but to any who can afford the fare. Business is brisk. The convicted and now sentenced is well taken care of while in the prison system. Money is the lubricant; on Sunday at Camp Street, it transformed into an accelerant. This business of paid passage and traffic in the prison starts with simple contraband: weed and WhatsApp (cellphones); soon and somewhere in that not-so-innocent commercial mix come weapons. Agents of the state were not the only ones firing during the uprising. Again, corruption is not merely white-collar; it is red as in bloodshed, and on Sunday it was red hot. I know of families that had to evacuate themselves; blood pressure rising, heart racing, and asthma suffocating. The clinical might call it collateral damage, but at the end of the trail, the afflictions originated with those so-called respectable citizens, increasingly so and increasingly camouflaged, who are behind the paying. These are the people who paid for that silence in court, and continue to pay to cushion stays in jail, if there are any stays at all, so as to ensure continued adherence to the code of silence. Omerta in action and Guyanese style. The paying citizens are those with a lot of easy cash. They could very well be the ones socialized with, partnered with, or defended and given cover. There may not be a formal structure and organization in the local corruption context; but there is undeniably one vast sprawling network (perhaps more than one) of facilitators on the inside (think the Republic Bank incident), intermediaries in lots of places (observe tainted members of the police and rural police in action in that same robbery), and treasurers (assorted venture or vulture capitalists engaged in some business pretence), and which are now embedded in almost every sector of this society. It is why I say as spotlights are rightfully shone on constitutional reform (vital) and soon-to-be prison reform (necessary), it would be well for the conscientious and law abiding citizens, especially the well-intentioned, to discern that all of the constructive things on the table will only be meaningful and successful if there is character reform. There has to be national character reform before any semblance of substantive progress can be attained. Otherwise, exercises are reduced to a heap of talking and also rather regrettably a few more Sundays (in whatever form) like this now fateful one. GHK Lall via email

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