44 prisoner-to-prisoner attacks occurred in 2024 – Prison Director

Noting that there has been a “significant” reduction in these incidents, Director of Prisons (ag), Nicklon Elliot said that a total of 44 prisoner-to-prisoner attacks were recorded in 2024.

“A total of 44 incidents were recorded for the year 2024 at the five prison locations with a population of 2,000,” Elliot revealed on Thursday.

He made this revelation while speaking at the opening of the Prison Service Senior Officers’ Conference.

Incidents in prisons can encompass a wide range of events, both violent and non-violent. These incidents can pose serious challenges to the safety and security of prisoners, staff and the general public.

Some common forms of these incidents include assaults, riots, escape, self-harm and suicide.

This improvement, Elliot strongly believes, is mainly due to the exposure of prisoners to various training opportunities.

In fact, he highlighted that in 2024, a total of 820 prisoners were exposed to various training opportunities including literacy and numeracy, technical and vocational training, stress and anger management and conflict resolution.

Currently, the prison service officers have a total of 25 training prorgammes.

Overall, Elliot said 2024 has been a year of transformation of the Prison Service, which saw several developmental changes, which were in keeping with the Government’s manifesto to address prison reform.