Female prisoners complain about new home
It seems that things never stay quiet for long at the prison. Whether it’s a breakout, stabbing, riot, drug bust or new attempt at rehabilitation, Hattieville is anything but dull. The latest fuss involves the relocation of some inmates that has left some of them less than satisfied.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
There’s been a residential exchange: the women’s section of Hattieville Prison is now located at the former Y.E.A. compound in Ladyville, while the young offenders who once lived at Y.E.A. are now doing time at the former women’s section of Hattieville.
It is a move that the twenty-four women inmates are not happy about. Stephanie Lorenzo from Dangriga is serving five years for burglary.
Stephanie Lorenzo, Inmate
“We don’t have any privacy, sick people are amongst us. Now we have to go outside to use the bathroom. The bathroom is not even in a good condition, look at the holes in the place, look at the walls. This is not a nice facility for women. The best thing is to take us back where we were first.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You prefer the original facility.”
Stephanie Lorenzo
“Yes ma’am, I prefer that. That’s more safer than here. Here is not a nice place, best thing that bring back the men that were here and let us go back to our prison.”
Therese Pandy, Inmate
“First thing, they build a new female facility for the females, so I don’t see the reason why they moved us from there and bring us here. Then this place is not even secure, anybody can come across the fence at night. The officer they don’t even have and office, no transport if anybody’s sick, nothing at all. They brought us here like we were animals and left us here. We’re not getting proper food, the cook is treating us like dog and all those things.”
And all those things, according to prisons public relations officer Marisa Quan, will get better despite a move she feels benefits the men.
Marisa Quan, P.R. Officer, Prisons Dept.
“We don’t believe it was a move more for the women as it was for the young offenders here. The government is working on a rehabilitation programme for the prisoners and we intend on getting full scale into rehabilitation for them. With that in mind we decided to pool our resources and therefore transfer the prisoners into one area, where it would be easier for us to share resources.”
But Lorenzo believes that providing an enabling environment for the women should be a priority.
Stephanie Lorenzo
“If they wanted us here they could have renovated the place before the females come, secure the place better.”
Indira Arnold, Inmate
“This place is filled with rats. The place that we used to have, the female facility that they built for us, it was clean and everything; no holes, well secure. It had been made secure that way for us, as we are females. Right about now we don’t have any security guards to watch over us. Look at the windows, no burglar bars, we have that at our female facility.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“The conditions are deplorable to say the least, a number of the inmates are saying “why not renovate before, then move us here?”
Marisa Quan
“I believe that the matter was dealt with, with the rehabilitation programmes in mind. At this point, all I can say is that I believe the new chairwoman and the board of governors will move at speed unimaginable to get this place to where it’s used to be.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Minister Responsible for Prisons, Dickey Bradley, told News 5 that he will soon be visiting the women’s prison in order to hasten the renovations.
