President of The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, attorney Fred Smith, spared no words yesterday, describing the beatings of the three recaptured prisoners as a shameful act against human beings in the state’s care.
Superintendent of Her Majesty’s Prison Dr Elliston Rahming admitted that undue force had been used against the inmates after being questioned about a memo warning prison guards not to beat them.
(B2B Editor’s Note: More shameful is the fact that Mr. Rahming makes no apologies, nor does he say that the abusive guards are being dealt with.)
Four prisoners escaped their cells on Jan 17, and in a scuffle, Corporal Dion Bowles and inmate Neil Brown were killed. Two other inmates were immediately recaptured but the fourth prisoner, who escaped the compound altogether, was not caught until two weeks later.
Said Mr Smith: “The Association firstly congratulates Dr Rahming for coming clean with the public. That in and of itself helps to build credibility.
“Emotions must have been running very high and when these people are locked away it certainly is quite imaginable that they will be beaten. So at this time, we are grateful that there is this acknowledgement,” he added.
“But I think that the Superintendent needs to do a little bit more than simply have a memo posted to say: `Stop beating the prisoners,”‘ Mr Smith continued.
However, Dr Rahming noted that abuse of prisoners was an exception and not the rule at Her Majesty’s Prisons. He also assured the public that the penal institution, with its high recidivism rate, was making strides towards becoming a correctional facility where prisoners could be rehabilitated and hence less likely to come out angry against society, only to commit more serious crimes.
In response, Mr Smith said, “Still, we are surprised that precautions were not taken ahead of time to ensure that the recaptured prisoners would not have been exposed to harm.”
“Have we debased ourselves to that level of animal conduct in our security forces?” he asked.
“We always criticise Haitians for terrorising each other in Haiti but we ourselves are fast going down their street. If our own law officers become lawless, what can we expect from the lawless element in our society?”
GBHRA had requested to visit the prison a few weeks ago when it first heard of inmates being abused. When Dr Rahming was asked if he would honour the Association’s request to visit the institution, he said the decision was out of his hands and that permission would have to be granted by the Ministry of National Security.
Mark Wilson, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of National Security, was not available for comment on the matter yesterday. And Mr Smith revealed that the Association had not received a reply to its request from either Dr Rahming or the Ministry of National Security.
“We think that is quite disrespectful,” he said. “So we maintain our request for a visit by our delegation, and we think that the fact that we are being vigilant in pursuing that is probably helping to stem further violence and abuse.”
Meantime, Free National Movement Leader Hubert Ingraham said he will address the beatings of the recaptured inmates as soon as he receives the report on the findings of the prison break. Mr Ingraham added that until he receives that 36-page report, he would refrain from commenting on matter.
By MINDELL SMALL Guardian Senior Reporter
