Eleven prison guards arraigned over inmate’s death

Eleven prison guards from the Hazard State Penitentiary Nickerie who were arrested over the deadly aggravated assault of Inmate Giovanni Dion Griffith were arraigned on Friday. The suspects who claim that they are innocent are being represented by defense attorneys Georgette Leter, Irvin Kanhai, Rjan Ramlakhan and Raoul Lobo. One of the defense attorneys told the examining magistrate that the situation in the state penitentiary was obscure. After the inmate had broken out of prison, all the prison guards were summoned. The prison guards who were off duty were also summoned and ordered to track down the escaped inmate. Several prison guards actively searched for the escaped convict. Another group escorted him back to the penitentiary after he had been caught and another group of prison guards watched him after he had been brought back to prison. Several teams were in charge of tracking down and recapturing the escaped convict. One of the defense attorneys pointed out that “it is therefore not clear who had assaulted the victim”. The defense team also pointed out that the warden had instructed the prison guards to make sure that the inmate would crawl back to his cell. Several prison guards explained that they had to carry out the order. If they failed, they could be charged with insubordination. Reports indicate that 17 prison guards have been arrested in total. All of them are being suspected of aggravated assault which resulted in the death of the victim. Griffith reportedly broke out of prison on March 24. He was recaptured the same day. Reports indicate that he was eventually rushed to the Emergency Room at the Drs Lachmipersad Mungra Regional Hospital but that he was dead upon arrival. The police initially arrested 5 prison guards. Meanwhile the number of suspects has climbed from 5 to 17.