The Ministry of Legal Affairs yesterday said it has been moving assiduously to address the overcrowding plaguing the country’s prison system and work has begun to advance the US$8 million justice system project aimed at addressing the situation.
“Since the previous prison unrest and fire on March 3, 2016 at the Georgetown Prison, the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Legal Affairs, has been assiduously moving apace to address the issue of overcrowding at the prisons,” the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
Following last Sunday’s fire and jailbreak at the Georgetown Prison on Camp Street, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has insisted that significant efforts have been made by government to implement the 70 recommendations made by the Justice James Patterson-led Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the previous fire. Observers have argued that had most of the recommendations been implemented, last Sunday’s disaster could have been avoided.
