Robert Hart, Staff Reporter

THE CORRECTIONAL Services Department is likely to need nearly $100 million to offset hurricane damage, according to Major Richard Reese, Commissioner of Corrections.

Major Reese told The Gleaner yesterday that detailed preliminary estimates have put the damage at $98 million, though it could go up or down.

"At least it gives us a snapshot so we can prioritise our recovery," he said.

Major Reese sought to assure the public that, thanks to the "tremendous support from staff who, despite all the odds, came out in large numbers", the prisoners were kept safe, with few incidents. He said there was a fight between two prisoners at Tamarind Farm Prison, which ended in a stabbing, as well as an attempted breakout at the Tower Street Correctional Centre, central Kingston.

The victim in the stabbing incident was hospitalised and the prisoner who attempted to escape was alleged to have been caught in the act.

BEATEN, SHOT

Major Reese denied reports that prisoners had been beaten or shot. Those suggestions, he said, were most likely being made by "relatives purporting to be officers or inmates."

At the Fort Augusta prison, near to Port Henderson, south-east St. Catherine, the 249 female prisoners, as well as six infants, were transferred to an undisclosed site in anticipation of flooding at that prison. During Hurricane Ivan, Fort Augusta was flooded by five feet of water.

"At all other prisons we had contingencies to relocate within institutions if prisoners became exposed to the elements," Major Reese said.

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