Intervention on the part of Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels to quell prisoners, comprising mostly of the recaptured Lusignan compound escapees, who were creating a ruckus over the food being served at the Georgetown Camp Street institution, unearthed that the men wanted “steak” for breakfast instead of porridge.
According to Samuels, the situation at the penitentiary is now under control. “The escapees wanted steak for breakfast and it was not available.”
While coming across as comical, the disruptions by the prisoners have serious undertones, more so in wake of the recently devastating July 9, prison break, unrest and conflagration, resulting in the displacement and escape of prisoners located at the same Camp Street facility. Prison officer Odinga Wickham was also killed.
The Camp Street Penitentiary’s fire saw the displacement of some 1,000 prisoners. Since then, several hundred inmates were transferred to the various prisons countrywide due to lack of space at the central prison.
Thirteen of the displaced prisoners dubbed as ‘hardcore’, who were being kept at the Lusignan holding area had escaped, most of them were eventually recaptured and transferred with others back to the brick part of the now refurbished Camp Street prison.
The alleged mastermind of the Camp Street unrest, Mark Royden Durant, called “Smallie”, and his surviving accomplice, Cobena Stephens, called OJ, remain on the loose.
On September 1, ex-Policeman Uree Varswyck was killed in an exchange of gunfire at Linden moments after being spotted with Durant, also called Mark Royden Williams.
Apart from Williams and Stephens, another prisoner, who escaped in the breakout at Lusignan, Paul Goriah remains on the run. However, he is not believed to be moving with “Smallie”.
