PRISONERS AT the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre, Spanish Town, say they are able to purchase cellular phones from prison warders for between $300 and $500.
This testimony was given yesterday, on day 11 of the Commission of Inquiry probing last month's mass beatings of inmates by soldiers and correctional officers at the facility. One of the two inmates who testified said he smashed his phone to prevent the warders from getting it. He also named a warder known only as "Gilbert" as the one who sold him the phone.
For security reasons, the media were asked not to name the prisoners who said they had been severely beaten by prison officials.
Apart from a cellular phone which he also said he purchased from a warder, inmate number one admitted to having a television set among the illegal items in his cell. He testified that he was taken from his cell by warders and soldiers on May 22, handcuffed and beaten.
When asked if he knew of the so-called "Nah Live Fi Nutten" posse which warders claim is involved in organised crime inside the prison, inmate number one said he recently heard about it for the first time on television. He told journalists he suffered a cut to his forehead which required 10 stitches to close, a broken arm, dislocated left knee and broken ribs as a result of the beatings he received.
Inmate number two told the Commission he was beaten after he was accused of being fiesty. He explained that following a search of his cell on the A1 block, a two-way radio and $3,700 was among the illegal items seized. A warder then proceeded to count the money in front of him to verify the amount when he told him to keep it as $1,600 he had taken away from him while he was incarcerated at the General Penitentiary was not returned, although it was counted in his presence.
The inmate said he also had a television set in his cell but, as he did with the phone earlier, smashed it before warders could get to it.
Inmate number two said the disturbance started on the New Hall Block at about 5:00 p.m. May 21. He said he saw "warders and soldiers running to and fro" before a barrage of shots were fired. It was at this stage he took up his cellular phone and dialled the toll-free line of a radio station where he informed the person that answered of the disturbance and the fact that he felt inmates might be killed.
According to the inmate, the search party returned to the A1 block at about 8:30 that evening and proceeded to order inmates from their cells and beat them.
He said inmates he knew only as "Obeah" "Townsend" "Rankin" and Anthony "Joe" Smith were removed from their cells, severely beaten for up to 10 minutes by both warders and soldiers.
"When they reach Damion Thomas' cell they said 'Damion a your time now, a long time wi waan kill you'," inmate number two said. He said by this time more than 50 soldiers and warders were on the cell block and he watched the entire proceedings through a 6x4 mirror he has in his cell. Thomas he said ran from his cell after an insecticide was used to spray him. Testimony was given earlier that he was pepper-sprayed. After exiting his cell Thomas fell, was set upon and beaten.
The inmate told the Commission that upon reaching his cell, the following morning, May 22, the search party threatened to kill him. For the next six hours he resisted their attempts to get him out by barricading himself inside his cell while throwing faeces on those trying to force him out. He said a substance smelling like gasolene was thrown into his cell and he was set on fire but managed to "out myself" in water that had gathered on the cell floor.
At what he thought was the end of his ordeal during which he received eye and leg injuries, the inmate said he voluntarily left his cell after being assured he would not be harmed. It was while he was limping on his way to the prison surgery that he said he was kicked to the ground by warder "Gilbert" who reportedly said "look pon di amount a sh..di man throw pon wi and him still a walk - dead him fi dead". At this stage, he said other warders set upon him and beat him.
