Dear Editor,
Fifty years ago, the last United Kingdom Director of Prisons, Mr Ronald Aitken, submitted a plan for a new prison in Guyana with the estimated cost to the then government. The government accepted the plan, but a few weeks later the government called him in and told him that they could not build the prison because it was not on the priority list.
Every society has crime and criminals, and Guyana is no exception. We have to provide acceptable ways of treating these offenders.
The Georgetown Prison has out lived its usefulness. At present it is a tinder box with an explosion waiting to happen. And no amount of razor wire on the walls of the prison and security guards outside will prevent a serious problem for the administration.
I saw the plan for the new prison as I was a member of the head office staff at the time, and the plan was shown to some of us. Had the then government and succeeding governments had the courage to start building that prison a little piece at a time we would have had an institution ready to reduce the Georgetown Prison population by half. If a glass is full we cannot make it fuller, and in like manner when there is overcrowding, more overcrowding is not the answer.
We must reduce the prison population before it is too late. To do that, we must get the Lands and Surveys Commission, to identify a suitable piece of land outside the city to build the prison.
Transport a small number of prisoners daily to the site to prepare it, after which the builders and engineers will take over and build the prison. The reason why the prison should be built close to the city is to facilitate the swift transfer of prisoners to the courts when ordered to do so.
I am a retired Deputy Director of Prisons having served there for 30 years from Assistant Prison Officer to Deputy Director and acted as Director on two occasions.
I pray daily for the safety of all the officers in the prison. In my lifetime I have seen many serious natural disasters in the region and beyond, and Guyana has survived them all.
May God continue to shower his blessings on this nation long after I am gone.
Let’s start building this prison now!
Yours faithfully
Randolph Moore
