Will Conditions at Queen Street Precinct ‘Piss’ House Ever Improve?

George Lovell

We’ve all heard the derogatory but very accurate description of the holding cells at the Queen Street Police Station, and truth be told, the others across the country aren’t in much better condition. For those of us just passing through, it’s unpleasant…for the persons detained there, and even the Police officers working in the proximity, it is borderline inhumane. The situation hasn’t changed in years, despite the cries of human rights activists and attorneys, but maybe it will soon. That’s because the Ministry of National Security is now sitting up and taking notice. That’s not to say anything will be done by, say, this year or even the next…but National Security C.E.O. George Lovell says they’re looking at it.

Ret’d. Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security

“We need to address all those holding cells. I had the…I don’t know if I want to call it privilege…but I had an opportunity to visit the one in Belmopan, and when I went there the stench, the odour that you have in there – and then we have our Police officers working in there and I had to go and ask if there was anything that we can do in the interim, because we have to try and fix what we have right now before we can go and get the properly designed cells that are well ventilated and away from where we have our constant day to day movements of people and those that administrate the Police stations. So definitely we need to look at those areas, and we will be looking at them, but I can’t be making you any promises that it will be happening anytime soon, even though yes, the CARSI money can be used for that. I think that it is the Government of Belize and my ministry’s responsibility to ensure that we provide using our own resources if we can. I don’t mind having them contributing to it, but if we can we need to address these things because it’s not just an issue of where we keep our prisoners, but the whole aspect of the conditions under which we have our people working.”