Juveniles start fire at Holding Centre

Police and Guyana Fire Service ranks had to be summoned to the Juvenile Holding Centre, Dennis Street, Sophia, around 18.00 Monday evening, after disruptive inmates set mattresses and other debris alight. One inmate, aged 14, and two others, aged 15, collapsed in their cells and had to be treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for smoke inhalation. They are said to be stable.

Kaieteur News understands that some of the juveniles, reportedly from Cell One, had also set similar fires on Saturday night. This was reportedly done by bridging electrical wires in the cells. A source said that around 18.00 hrs yesterday, inmates from Cell One and Cell Three, set toilet paper, pieces of cloth and sponge that was torn from mattresses alight. They then threw the lighted materials into the walkway. ‘A’ Division Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Marlon Chapman said that around 18.00 hrs, ranks at the Sophia facility smelled smoke and saw pieces of lighted sponge in the walking area.

After extinguishing the flames, they checked the cells and found three juveniles in an unconscious state. “They were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital and are receiving oxygen”, the Commander said.

He said that investigators were still attempting to identify the culprits.

During interviews last year, police ranks who are stationed at the holding centre had alleged that violent juveniles sometimes attacked ranks with makeshift weapons and bags of faeces. They had expressed concern that minors who have committed petty offences are housed with others who are detained for more serious offences, including murder. Staff disclosed that some of the teens who have committed serious offences have been in the holding centre for three years.

They said that one 16-yearold on a murder charge had tried to stab a police rank with a piece of sharpened metal the teen had broken off from a bed.

The ranks said that some juveniles have even yanked out ‘live’ electrical wiring from the cells to rig up booby traps for the staff.

“They would tie the electrical wiring with current to the cell doors, which would start to glow red, and then call the ranks”, one source said.

(Kaieteur news)