After four weeks of “assiduous” probing, prison officials have completed what they say is a compact, comprehensive, transparent and informative report on what led to last month’s escape from Her Majesty’s Prison.
A prison officer and an inmate were killed in the incident.
The five-member Special Court of Inquiry presented the 36-page internal investigation report to Dr. Rahming on Monday along with a surveillance tape presumably depicting the events leading up to the January 17 incident in which four prisoners mounted an escape plot.
While revealing that the investigation had been completed, Dr. Rahming declined to say what the findings were.
The report and its attachments were immediately forwarded to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security.
“There, it will be decided what future course of action – if any – may be taken subsequent to the government having perusal of the report,” Dr. Rahming said.
Appointed just after the prison break, the panel was mandated to review security measures during the period surrounding the incident; examine the lighting and surveillance apparatus; assess the possible means by which inmates were able to access cutting devices; review the adequacy of communication devices to officers on duty; look at the availability of non-lethal immobilizers for use by officers and examine the effectiveness of cell checking procedures.
The Maximum Security section of the prison was constructed 60 years ago to accommodate 400 inmates. Today, the facility houses double its capacity.
Dr. Rahming said this has brought with it “inherent challenges.”
In 2000, there were four escapes from the prison and the four prisoners were recaptured. In 2001, there were four escapes and three prisoners were recaptured.
The following year, another four prisoners fled the Fox Hill facility and four were recaptured. In 2003, there were five escapes and five prisoners were recaptured.
In 2004, six prisoners escaped and all were recaptured and last year, four escaped and four were recaptured.
“Clearly then, based on an average daily prison population of 1,500, the escape is 4.5 per year or 1.8 percent and the recapture rate over the six-year period is 96.2 percent,” Dr. Rahming said.
“There can be no doubt that on the basis of the facts, Her Majesty’s Prison is fulfilling its mandate to keep society safe from escapees. It is also totally clear to inmates that it is foolish for them to attempt to escape since almost 100 percent of those who succeed in escaping are caught in short order.”
While applauding the men and women who work at the prison, Dr. Rahming said, “There are a few bad rotten apples in the barrel. We will pluck them out one by one and in time bring corruption and complicity to an irreducible minimum.”
Prison officials have devised a number of initiatives to improve the prison’s security, among them making significant personnel changes in Maximum Security as of March 6, according to the prison superintendent.
Dr. Rahming said that within two weeks, a scanner will also be operational at the Maximum Security unit; and construction of a canopy at the main entrance to Her Majesty’s Prison will begin in one week and once completed would require everyone to go through airport like security clearance before entering the compound.
He said personal alarms are being ordered for Maximum Security staff and work on the perimeter wall will commence by March 15 once officials have acquired at least 30,000 of the estimated 250,000 blocks needed for the fortification.
Dr. Rahming also told reporters that plans are also “well underway” for a new Maximum Security facility to house 900 inmates; new, distinct uniforms have been ordered for inmates; motion sensor lights are being installed atop Maximum Security and at other sensitive areas; the exercise protocol for inmates within Maximum Security has been altered; and a cell phone-killing device has been ordered to prevent the use of cellular telephones.
Razor wire now laces the roof of Maximum Security and surveillance cameras are now monitored on a 24/7 basis, according to the prison superintendent.
Dr. Rahming also said that from time to time, the prison will continue to reassess its personnel “to ensure that there is a best fit at all posts”.
“We have now undergone that exercise,” he said. “We are in a position to make certain strategic shifts in personnel on the basis of ensuring that we have round pegs in round holes, so to speak.”
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
