Dear Editor,
On Thursday 6th August, 2015 when I was told by a hire car driver at Supenaam that he was assaulted by a prisoner who was at the time in police custody at the Supenaam Farmers Wharf, I could not believe what he was telling me, so I enquired from more than a dozen persons whom I know would normally be there, and the hire car driver’s story was true.
Supenaam Farmers Wharf is an area like many other wharves where the speedboats operating from Supenaam to Parika and back would moor, so that passengers could embark and disembark. At the same time they would be used by the police escorting prisoners to and from the Essequibo Coast, to be remanded or to serve their sentences after attending court in the Essequibo magisterial district. This mode of transportation has been used by the police for years.
But what is totally surprising is how a party of policemen escorting prisoners, and whose duty it is to ensure the men are kept in their custody, allowed this prisoner to get within striking distance of the victim.
We often hear about the police assaulting prisoners and prisoners assaulting the police, but a prisoner in police custody assaulting a member of the public is strange.
It has been confirmed that the prisoner in question is accused of indictable offences including robbery, and at least on one previous occasion had assaulted a civilian at Parika Stelling while he was also in police custody in transit from the Georgetown remand facility to court in the Essequibo magisterial district.
While it is public knowledge that prisoners would travel under heavy police escort from various courts throughout the Essequibo coast and with the police vehicle siren blaring, when they reach Supnaam the party of policemen and prisoners would then use a boat that would have sometimes a dozen civilians in it. There is always the danger of an escape that could easily be planned to take place on the river.
The system and mode of transportation of prisoners to and from Essequibo has to be reviewed. My understanding is that the prisoner was placed before the court promptly and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. However, it cannot be disputed that standard operational procedures were not followed by the escorting ranks on that day, and while it must be noted that they are not the ones who decide the way in which prisoners must be transported, it was a clear case of neglect of duty on the part of these ranks.
The old saying, nothing happens, nothing said, or if it is not broken you don’t fix it, doesn’t mean this practice which was going on for years was not wrong. It is now broken, and we wait to see how early it will be fixed.
Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis
Ex-Police Constable
