A bitter verbal spat broke out between former acting prison superintendent Edwin Culmer and sitting prison superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming on Friday over the security, finances and other troubling issues at Her Majesty’s Prison in Fox Hill.
During the heated exchange, Mr. Culmer at one point called Dr. Rahming a “liar.” Dr. Rahming also had to defend himself against the charge that his appointment as head of the prison was a political “favour.”
The row, which comes on the heels of this week’s deadly prison break that has left a prison officer and an inmate dead, and an escaped convict on the loose, erupted during yesterday’s segment of Love 97’s Issues of Day talk show.
As Dr. Rahming responded to the charges, he revealed that the Ministry of Works has approved funds to properly secure the perimeter of the prison, which is believed to have contributed to Tuesday’s prison break.
Mr. Culmer, who appeared as a guest on Issues of the Day, started out by criticising the Prison Reform Commission’s report, which was headed at the time by Dr. Rahming, a criminologist.
“The substance of this report is something that belittled my character and I had no voice in the commission,” said the former acting prison superintendent, who now heads the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.
Mr. Culmer said that he had put together an extensive list of suggestions for the commission, which he claimed could have been used to enhance the prison system; however, he feels that his views were “shunned” by the commission and were not taken into consideration.
“No recommendations that I made with respect to how to go about improving the prison [and] assisting in the rehabilitation of inmates made it in the prison report. The only thing that made it in the report was criticisms,” Mr. Culmer said.
Dr. Rahming responded with his position on the report.
He said that according to several persons who were considered prison authorities or experts on prisons, Her Majesty’s Prison was poorly managed during Mr. Culmer’s 33-year tenure.
Dr. Rahming also insinuated that Mr. Culmer had taken the implications of the report too personally.
When host of the show, Michael Pintard, asked Dr. Rahming whether the suggestions by Mr. Culmer were considered in the report, Dr. Rahming responded:
“One of the first persons that the commission spoke to in great detail was Edwin Culmer. As a matter of fact if you look at the commission’s report the very first name in the acknowledgement section is Edwin Culmer. So I have no idea what he is talking about.”
Mr. Culmer responded that his gripe was that the commission’s report did not encompass retired prison officers’ input.
He said that was an injustice to The Bahamas.
Mr. Culmer said that the maximum security section of the prison was over crowded, with more than 700 to 800 inmates housed in a unit and only seven to eight guards to watch over them.
Dr. Rahming responded that 50 recruits have joined the prison system since he assumed office and an additional 75 officers were set to come on stream.
He also pointed out that funds have been secured to fortify the perimeters of the prison, which apparently made it easy for the prisoners involved in Tuesday’s break to escape.
“The Minister of Works [Bradley Roberts] has now made available the funds for fortification of the perimeter walls. I expect that by early next week the funds would be distributed incrementally for that project,” Dr. Rahming said.
As the tension grew between both men, Dr. Rahming said that no matter who is heading the prison, inmates would try to escape.
“Prisoners have no respect for superintendents. They escaped under Mr. Major, they escaped under Mr. Turner, they escaped under Mr. Culmer and from time to time it’s happening now,” Dr. Rahming said.
He added that before Mr. Culmer could criticise his administration, he must realise that 24 inmates escaped under his tenure.
Mr. Culmer quickly responded by calling Dr. Rahming a “liar.”
But Dr. Rahming faxed statistics supporting his claim that 24 inmates escaped under Mr. Culmer’s tenure.
The statistics showed that from March 2000 to January 2005, 24 inmates escaped from Her Majesty’s Prison, one of whom was the escaped convict Corey Hepburn, who is still at large since Tuesday’s prison break.
The document indicated that Hepburn was the 21st prisoner who escaped under Mr. Culmer’s watch, on June 27, 2004.
The document also indicated that four prisoners escaped in 2000, four in 2001, four in 2002, five in 2003, six in 2004 and one in 2005.
Dr. Rahming also defended his appointment as prison superintendent, stating that he is qualified to handle the job.
Former prison inmate Stephen Seymour, who was also a guest on Issues of the Day on Friday, charged that not only was Dr. Rahming not fit to be a prison superintendent but that his appointment was a political favour.
Responded Dr. Rahming: “The fact of the matter is, I have been an educator, a director of a detention facility in St. Louis. I have headed the Miami YMCA, I have been a consultant advisor on crime, I have been appointed to the National Crime Commission by the Free National Movement, so it has nothing to do with politics.”
As the spat continued, tensions reached a boiling point when Dr. Rahming indicated that there would be an investigation into missing commissary funds.
This was after Mr. Culmer had suggested that there should be a public inquiry into Tuesday’s prison break.
“The police are conducting an investigation and the prison is conducting its own investigation into the missing commissary funds, and this investigation that we are conducting will lead to a report that would be shared with the public,” Dr. Rahming said.
The prison superintendent has also launched a special court of inquiry to investigate the circumstances, conditions and challenges that may have contributed to the events leading up to the death of Corporal Dion Bowles and Tuesday’s prison break, which also resulted in the death of convicted murderer Neil Brown, who was on death row for the 2000 murder of Archdeacon William Thompson.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
