Ombudsman cites prison officers for brutality

On July twenty-eighth we ran an interview with Hattieville inmate Randolph Miller. Miller had just been taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after he was allegedly beaten by Carl Davis, an officer at the Department of Corrections in the presence of other officers. Miller, who had escaped from the Hattieville prison, had been recaptured by police in Corozal. However, the inmate charges that as soon as he was returned to Hattieville, he was taken into a control room where he was repeatedly threatened and beaten with a two by four. As a result of the incident, Miller sustained a broken arm and both his feet were fractured. Miller’s family quickly lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman and today; Paul Rodriguez released the findings of his investigation. The report finds that Carl Davis, Raymond Joe Neal and Joseph Hemsley tried to cover up their brutal behaviour by fabricating a story that Miller’s injuries to his feet were the result of a blow he received after he tried to hit an officer with a wheel spanner. Rodriguez says after seeking the opinion of the doctor who tended to Miller, he came to the conclusion that the officers’ statements were false. As a result of the investigation, the Ombudsman has made the following recommendations. That the proposed promotion of Officer Carl Davis be set aside. That Carl Davis, Raymond Joe Neal and Joseph Hemsley be fined the sum of two thousand dollars each. That these fines be imposed as pay sheet deductions at the rate of twenty-five dollars per payday from the salary of each of the guilty officers. That an account be opened at a credit union or some other saving institution in the name of the inmate Randolph Miller and the sums deducted be deposited to his name and the pass book delivered to Miller upon his release from prison. The Ombudsman has given the Department of Corrections twenty working days to respond to the recommendations.