A WARDER, said to be among those who recently returned to work after more than two years on quarter-pay interdiction, is being tried in the Corporate Criminal Court, Half-Way-Tree, for selling drugs to inmates at the Horizon Remand Centre.
An officer at the Denham Town Police Station confirmed yesterday that warder Cecil Smiekle was arrested on June 26 on charges of being in possession of and dealing in a dangerous drug (ganja), while on duty at the newly built remand centre.
Mr. Smeikle has been out on bail since. His bail was extended when he appeared in the Half-Way Tree Court again yesterday. He is to reappear on July 23.
The remand centre, built last year at a cost of $440 million, has been in the news since its opening last November. Early this year, there were reports about its under-use, housing only a handful of remandees (persons awaiting disposal of their cases in court), while jails and other similar correctional facilities were over-populated.
Up to early April, the centre housed only eight female inmates who had been moved there from Fort Augusta. Public outcry, led to an immediate transferral of over 350 remandees from various jails and the old remand centre in Denham Town to the new facility. It was built to house approximately 1,000 remandees..
But since the increase in population, the institution has been plagued with constant violence, involving gangs of inmates and warders.
In May, a warder was held hostage for more than a hour by inmates and had to be rescued by police personnel from the area. Five warders were injured in that incident. On Monday police had to return to the centre to end a stand-off between warders and inmates, during which equipment were destroyed.
But spokesmen, for both the Ministry of National Security and the Correctional Services, have continued to deny that there is violence there.
Yesterday, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Kern Spencer, met with officers of the Correctional Services. After the meeting, he dismissed claims that the inmates had taken control of the centre. However, he gave instructions for the damage done by them during the recent fracas to be repaired.
