By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter THREE WEEKS after the Spanish Town police filed the second of two reports alerting authorities about the unsafe conditions at the cell block, 17 prisoners cut themselves to freedom in a major jailbreak yesterday morning.
Police Commissioner Francis Forbes has ordered detectives from the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to probe the incident. Sources told The Gleaner yesterday that the Spanish Town police wrote two reports, one on January 30 and the other on March 14, outlining the deplorable conditions which exist at the lock-up.
In its January 10 report, the Spanish Town police said, "While vigilance is stepped up with the perimeter patrols, it is difficult to prevent the prisoners from doing further damage to the inside structure of the cell block."
When they got no action, the cops of the old capital wrote another report last month, declaring that "immediate remedial action is now being requested, whether by closure of the cells or by repairs to be effected".
Yesterday at about 2:20 a.m., 17 prisoners in the cell block which the lawmen complained about were reported missing. "It was subsequently revealed that several metal bars of a door had been cut and the prisoners had made their escape through a bathroom window and then over the perimeter wall," declared a statement from the police's public relations arm, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN).
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, said that National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, needs to tell the nation why remand prisoners were being held at the police lock-up and not at the new remand centre on Spanish Town Road in St. Andrew.
Yesterday's jailbreak brings to 46, the number of prisoners who have escaped custody since January 2001. According to police records, this is the sixth jailbreak over the past three months. The CCN reported that 24 prisoners have escaped custody since the start of the year -- 20 escaped from police lock-ups; three fled from hospitals while under police guard, and one escaped from a courthouse. Up to yesterday, only three of those who escaped custody this year had been recaptured. Of the 31 prisoners who escaped custody last year, five were recaptured.
Heading the list of those who escaped is Conroy Robinson, 18, who was charged with the Above Rocks double murder in January 2001. The victims were Corporal Dwight Gibson and retired Customs Officer, Dennis Betton. They were both shot and killed at the Above Rocks Police Station.
Among the other escapees are Curtis Brown, 20, of Mile Gully, Manchester and Paul Kennedy, 25, alias 'Tiger', of Allman Town, Kingston 4, who are both facing murder charges.
The escapees, who are facing charges of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, are: Tyrone McLeary, 20 of Arnett Gardens, Kingston, Koneal Burke, 19, Robert Foster, 33, Christopher Blake, 24, Damion Burgess, 22, Rohan Hall, 19, Roderick Satchell, 25, Frederick Giscombe, 29, Junior Lewis, 23, all of Spanish Town addresses in St. Catherine. CCN said last night that Satchell was recaptured in Sanish Town late yesterday when the police spotted him in a car.
The list is completed by Ricardo Lawrence, 17, of Wynters Pen, Spanish Town, St. Catherine; Carlington Scarlett, 18, of Kidd Lane, Kingston 13, who was facing charges of robbery with aggravation; Ricky McLean, 21, of Angels Town, St. Catherine, facing charges of burglary; and Garnett Smith, 24, and Andrew Thomas, 21, of Kew Roads addresses, in Kingston, were serving a five-year jail term for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
