The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 3rd 2016 Camp Street Prison unrest, which claimed the lives of 17 inmates, has exonerated Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels of allegations made against him and he returns to work today.
“Yes I would want him. Based on the findings of the CoI, he was vindicated there and so we have to bring him on back. I need his services badly too,” Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News yesterday.
“One of the findings, as it pertains to allegations by the prisoners, was that he was the one that said ‘fire them and burn them’…absolutely nothing of the sort happened,” Ramjattan said.
Samuels was sent off of duty for six weeks by Ramjattan who explained that it was to facilitate the CoI. “We think that [him going on leave] is a necessity as this stage…couple of things about Mr Samuels and for both his interest and also the interest of the prison and my discretion, I indicated that it might be advisable at this stage,” Ramjattan had said when he made public, the decision to send Samuels on leave.
Some inmates had testified at the CoI that Samuels had ordered other wardens to not render assistance to those suffering from the inferno and let them burn.
Kenneth Griffith, who is a resident of Capital Block C, located just below the Capital A division, had told the CoI that when the smoke first started emanating from a prison cell, Samuels called for the officers who had gone upstairs to retrieve the remaining prisoners after a standoff between the prisons task force and inmates Steve Allicock and Collis Collison caused them to retreat to their dorm. When they came, he enquired whether they had been responsible for the fire starting upstairs. When they replied no, Griffith alleged that the Deputy Director told the officers, “If y’all ain light no fire, lock the door and let they s***t bun.”
The inmate had related that he tried reasoning with Samuels, who had been standing not far from where he was, to let the men out, while pointing out that regardless of the situation, prisoners were people too.
Samuels, however, reportedly left and stood some distance away with his arms folded, watching on.
Griffith had said that it was sometime later that he saw Samuels go up to the Capital B block. He recalled also that soon afterwards, on the orders of Kevin Pilgrim, the Officer in Charge of the prison, officers ran up to the division with tools. Upstairs, he said, he could hear inmates running about and shouts of “murder.”
Another inmate, Desmond James, who was one of those who was caught in the blaze but managed to escape with only burns to his knee, had also testified last month that Samuels had ordered that the door to the Capital A section be closed prior to the fire.
‘Walk in his shoes’
Three weeks later, when he was called to the stand, the Deputy Director of Prisons insisted that he did all he could to safeguard the lives of the Camp Street Prison inmates and suggested that prisoners would be hard-pressed to give a true account of the events due to fear.
Samuels had said that those who knew him, including prisoners, and who were willing to speak the truth, would give a totally different account of his operations at work but may be reluctant to do so because of the prison culture.
During his testimony, he denied reports made by most of the prison witnesses that he passed an order to lock the door and “leh they burn and dead,” offering that he would never state such, particularly in a prison environment. He said the situation was very devastating to him, revealing that he relives the experience on a regular basis.
After the events had unfolded on March 3rd, even before he had learnt of the deaths of the 17 inmates, Samuels said prisoners had begun complaining to Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken that he was responsible for the fire and had passed an order for the door to be closed. To minimise conflict, Hicken suggested he leave the prison yard, to which he complied.
Samuels had said that the untruths being reported and the picture that has been painted in the media, based on accounts from prisoners of him being “barbaric,” has had major effects on not only him but his family. He related that when making trips to places like the bank and supermarket, or simply driving on the street, persons look at him differently.
Yesterday, one of his colleagues told this newspaper that the staff of the Georgetown prison, were relieved that Samuels would be returning to work. “It had to have been hard on him and only who wears and walks in the shoe knows the emotional trauma he has been through. Working in these prisons is not a walk in park and you have to be mentally prepared for it,” the warden said.
“We are glad he is coming back, well most of us anyway, he is a stickler for discipline but he is human too and these prisoners know he is no beast…but when you work in this environment and law enforcement generally the bad guys wouldn’t like you,” he added.
