| Camp Street Prison inmate, Carl Brown yesterday revealed to the Commission of Inquiry (COI)Camp Street inmateCarl Browninto the March 3 unrest that the seizure of prisoners’ belongings, including cellular phones,Authentic Adidas Hockey Jerseys China, marijuana, and other contraband, essentially had nothing to do with the riot which left 17 men dead.Brown testified before the three-member panel established to inquire into the disturbance yesterday. Fully clad in a Kurta (a loose long-sleeved shirt extending to the knees), the prisoner told the Commission his recollection of what took place on the night of the tragic incident.Brown told Counsel for the Commission, Excellence Dazzell that he recalled the screams of his fellow inmates on the morning of March 3, 2016. The witness claimed that he was in his hammock with his phone at the time of the ruckus.“To tell you the truth most of the time I does be in the hammock with meh phone. I really don’t have time with the prison…” he said.He said that he was in the hammock speaking on the phone with one of his girlfriends,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, when he was alerted that Officer Samuels was in the yard with the Prison Task Force Officers.Brown told the tribunal that he learnt subsequently that the officers were conducting a search in the various sections of the prisons. He said that he paid the officers no mind, since searches and seizures of contraband was a common feature at the prison.However,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys, the witness said the officers snatched two prisoners Steve Allicock and Collis Collison,China NFL Jerseys, and this caused a commotion among the inmates.“I heard people start saying yuh can’t knock the man and based on that, I realize what was happening,”He said that as a result, the other inmates that were coming out of Capital A to be searched ran back to the cell and shut the door. Brown clarified that the door could not have been locked by the inmates, since it could only be locked from the outside.“At that stage I heard inmates say they light a mattress and then I heard Mr. Gladwin Samuels say ‘y’all lock de door and let them bun them mothers***t and dead.’”Asked specifically if he knew what might have caused the riot, Brown reiterated that he did not believe that it was the search or seizure of prohibited articles, since this was regular occurrence at Camp Street.Brown further disclosed it is not a difficult task for prisoners to acquire prohibited items, such as cell phones and marijuana, since it is smuggled into the jail by officers of the Guyana Prison Service and then sold to the inmates.The witness told the Commission that even after a search,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, items that were seized would be “packaged and resold” to the inmates.The man claimed that during his 13 years of incarceration at the facility, he has owned at least seven cellular phones, which he purchased from the wardens.“I pay $7000 to bring in a phone to get a proper phone. This is my seventh phone since in prison. As soon as a phone is taken away, you pay and get it back,” Brown stated.During his evidence, the prisoner also admitted that he is a regular user of the social website Facebook while in Camp Street.Upon his return to the penitentiary yesterday, Brown updated his Facebook status.“Just returned from COI. It was a heart painful day but I survived thank God. Well for me it was very short with time and the CoI panel. Dale Erskine was absent he just can’t face me. I heard normally Honorable Chancellor Carl Singh and Mr Charles Ramson, also the head of the Bar Association Christopher Ram is supposed to be there but today absent as well…” Brown postedOn Monday, murder accused Kenneth Griffith,Cheap NFL Jerseys, told the commission that it was Deputy Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels who gave the orders which cost the lives of the 17 inmates. |
