Prison break foiled

Convicted prisoner Stafrei Alexander who escaped from the Camp Street, Georgetown prison on July 09, 2017, and was later recaptured, on Friday attempted another escape.

In a statement, Director of Prisons (ag) Gladwin Samuels disclosed that Alexander and Ryan Jones who is serving twenty-eight years for Manslaughter, were the main players in the escape plan.

Jones is serving time in prison for the murder of 24-year-old mechanic Purand Baljit, who was killed on June 9, 2016, during a robbery at his Madewini, Timehri home.

Samuels said at around 10:45hrs, ranks who were interacting with prisoners in the Security Block of the Georgetown Prison observed that several bars of a cell had been cut and secured with cloth.

Upon further investigation, it was found that bars of another cell had also been cut.

The Prison Director said hacksaw blades were discovered during the search and are said to be the items used to cut the bars.

The police, with the assistance of prison officers from the Georgetown Prison, will be conducting a full investigation into the matter to determine how the prisoners were able to access the hacksaw blades and why the sawed bars were not discovered earlier.

There were two prison breaks in the past five years with one in March 2016 and the other in July 2017.

In the March 2016 prison break, 17 prisoners were killed while the July 09, 2017 riot saw the escape of Stafrei Alexander and atleast eight other prisoners.

Alexander was recaptured on July 29, 2017, in a yard in Toopoo Village, Corentyne.

On July 05, 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Sandil Kissoon at the High Court after being found guilty on a charge of attempted murder.

Alexander called ‘Mad dog’ was found guilty by a 12-member jury of discharging a loaded firearm at Curtis Thom on March 23, 2015, at Laing Avenue, Georgetown with intent to commit murder.