The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am writing publicly to thank Mr L Taylor for having the courage to share the truth about what has been going on at the prison.

I too am a former inmate that was released in February and the Bahamian people need to know that the stories about Police brutality are a joke compared to what takes place at the prison everyday.

I lived in Remand Centre, the Max and lastly Medium Security before my time expired. Yes, men in Remand are still pissing and passing faeces in buckets. There was not one properly working toilet in Remand.

Yes, the men in Max are still shitting in slop buckets everyday. And none of the broken toilets in Medium can flush on their own. The entire place is terribly over crowded as dorms that were built for 25 now house 40 men all crammed like slaves on a ship.

It hurts my heart to see and know that this is the way Bahamians treat each other when put in a position of power and authority.

We are denigrating our own people, but the Minister and visitors never saw this. Prison leadership made sure to only tour the more palatable parts of the facility.

I worked in a building called Education and it was right next to the farm.

I watched men weed and plant all day in terrible heat and not given anything in return.

I watched crops that were grown for the prison all taken home by officers. Beets, cabbage, pumpkins, melons all taken home by officers. Not one sweet pepper or melon slice made it on an inmates plate.

Next I worked in the kitchen but quit after one week because I simply could not take the way that senior male and female officers shout and cursed at us inmate workers all day long.

Inmates who went to work at 4am until 3pm would have their food taken away and eaten by officers. It was like a constant effort to demean us.

Yes, men are still being beaten with belts and wooden bats.

I witnessed a young man in Remand centre brutally beaten by four officers to give up a cell phone.

I watched another young man beaten by two officers and sent to Max because they could smell, but not find, the weed in his cell.

Bahamian men are being looked upon and treated less than human by “Bahamian officers”. It is the prison officers who are making things worse in this country by their hostility and abusive actions.

The only advocate the inmates truly have in that place is the head Chaplin Apostle Leon Wallace. He has been doing his best to help inmates but has been obstructed and fought down by prison leadership at every turn.

It was Apostle who stopped officer from harassing inmates at 11pm at night.

It was only Apostle and his staff that inmates could go to for a blanket, towel or mattress.

I was one of the young men that Apostle Wallace worked with and was promised early release by the Minister since Christmas.

Yes, families are disappointed as not one person that was on the Chaplin’s recommended list has been released.

Men who were first time offenders and showed true reform, took classes, attended counseling, worked everyday, never been in trouble have all been pushed aside by prison leadership. And all because the leaderships’ constant disregard and opposition for anything good for inmates that Minister Dames or Apostle Wallace attempt to do.

The Bahamian people would be shocked and ashamed if they knew the level of pure disrespect prison officers and leadership have for their Minister and how poorly they treat inmates.

Yet these same people want the public to sympathise with their calls for fairness. Why don’t these officers complain when prison leadership turns away offers from private organisations to donate better food for inmates?

Why don’t they complain when prison leadership wanted to fire a former Chaplin in 2020 simply because he gave inmates a Father’s Day gift of a single toilet tissue, one soap, and toothpaste?

This is black on black hate. Bahamian on Bahamian oppression. As a former inmate my family and I wish we could vote out you prison officers.

We only want to know when will Minister Dames do what truly needs to be done. Clean up that place and help the inmates many of whom want help and deserve a second chance.

MR DAVIS

Nassau,

March 21, 2021.