Three other inmates of the Georgetown Prison have been isolated as investigations continued into a fight, which broke out in the jail on Monday night, resulting in five inmates being injured.
On Monday night six inmates were isolated after they were believed to have beaten their cellmates in a big brawl in the capital offences section of the prison, which sent the authorities on high alert.
Prisons head Dale Erskine said last evening that officials remained on high alert and confirmed that three of the prisoners who were treated at the hospital – Azim Khan, Christopher Dhanraj and Calvin Bailey – were returned to the prison after treatment on Monday night.
Noel Adonis and Gary Moses are still patients at the hospital. When this newspaper visited the hospital yesterday the men’s ankles were cuffed to their beds and they were under guard by prison officials.
Questioned as to where the assailants might have gotten the pieces of wood they reportedly used to beat their cellmates with, Erskine said they might have ripped them off some part of the building. However, he said, police and prison officials will collaborate in investigations.
On Monday, Erskine had reported that it was around 7.15 pm when officers heard noises coming from the “capital division” of the prison. When they started to investigate, the lights went out.
He said that from the sounds they were hearing, the officers realised that someone was being beaten. The sirens were turned on and everyone went on high alert and the joint services responded immediately. Prison officers were able to manoeuvre themselves into the area where they found a number of injured, bloodied prisoners. He said it was hard to figure out whether the men had actual punctures to their bodies or just lacerations. However, he said, they established that the men had been beaten with pieces of wood.
Meanwhile, the usual cordon around the prison was widened and heavily-armed policemen and ranks from the Guyana Fire Service remained vigilant outside the building.
The extended cordon remained outside the prison yesterday.
