April 1, 2020

Some Remand Yard Prisoners Will Be Sent Home

By Newsroom

Efforts are underway to determine which prisoners will be sent home from Remand Yard, to ease the overcrowding in the jails. It’s all art of the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“I am hoping that by the end of the day the Attorney General and the Judiciary can tell the population what we can do with respect to prisoners in Remand Yard,”   Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said at a news  conference on Wednesday.

“Work is progressing at this time with a view to determine what we can do to intervene in the prisons, to have persons who are there on the basis of not having been able get bail, those who are not violent or a danger, to see whether we could not improve the conditions in the prison by reducing the population and preventing the possibility of overcrowding because that is a very, very vulnerable area.

“Prisoners who have been convicted and on appeal there are things we can do

“I am hoping with the broadest sense of understanding  we  can get those people out of there and I trust that we can minimise the exposure there for certain categories of the incarcerated, “ Dr Rowley said.

 The Prime Minister’s announcement comes two weeks after prisoners at Remand Yard in Golden Grove rioted over fears about the spread  of the CODID-19 in the overcrowded jails.

On Tuesday,  the Acting Commissioner of Prisoners suspended al visits by family members, indefinitely.

  Early release of prisoners is happening simultaneously around the world.

Share