The Public Security Ministry has confirmed that normalcy has been restored at the Lusignan Prison following a disturbance on Monday evening.
The ministry via a release started that the situation returned to normalcy at about 00:30h on Tuesday morning.
However, ministry also confirmed that eight persons were shot and injured but only six had to seek medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Those injured are Cleveland Williams, Lester Joseph, Teaive Cush, Raymond Jones, Corwyn Artur, Anirudh Prashad, Lakeram Singh and Lexroy Rigby.
According to the detailed release, it was revealed that wardens resorted to discharging live rounds of various caliber of ammunition to calm the inmates after the rubber bullets did not work. At this time, the release stated that inmates were behaving in a riotous manner.
“The Prisoners hurled hundreds of missiles directly at officers, damage the inner Holding Bay fences and exited the confined area. They then focused their attention on gaining access to the gate that allows exit from the location by using several items to hit the gate, but they were unsuccessful in their attempt”, the release added.
The release also confirmed that at the time of the incident, there were 558 prisoners in the facility with a total of 80 consisting of personnel from the Prisons service, Guyana Police Force and the Fire Service working to restore the situation to some sort of normalcy.
The authorities are holding out that several attempts were made by officers and ranks to enter the location with the use of shields, but the large number and size of the missiles caused them to retreat and run to safety.
However, as darkness approach, the prisoners reportedly continued to throw missiles thus damaging four perimeter lights.
The furious inmates who were reportedly protesting the conditions of the holding bays resorted to setting fire to mattress and pallets which they placed along the inside of the fence. This, the authorities claimed caused damage to the monitoring room which controls the CCTV cameras.
“After repeated attempts to have the Prisoners desist from their riotous behavior failed, officers reverted to the use of rubber pellets. As this approach also failed, various calibers of live rounds were directed in the air’, the release added.
After sometime, the inmate became calm and requested an audience with the Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels. During this engagement, Samuels was made aware that several prisoners did not receive their lunch.
Other issues such as the physical infrastructure of the facility to the length of imprisonment and the way some junior ranks deliver their duties were also raised by the inmates.
Nevertheless, the situation remained calm up until 23:00h when prisoners from Holding Bay One and Two were seen breaking the inner fence. As such, the security presence was increased.
