Prison Service tackling overcrowding – Director

Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot says overcrowding in the prisons is no longer the crisis it once was, crediting ongoing expansion and upgrades across the system.

In a recent interview with the News Room, Elliot said the Prison Service has made “significant progress,” noting that reconstruction of the New Amsterdam Prison is now 69% complete.

At Lusignan, six new buildings have been added and some upgrades at Mazaruni, which houses high-profile inmates, are finished.

“With these improvements, the conditions that prisoners are always in are much better than it was before,” he said, adding that staff accommodations have also improved.

Elliot stressed that the major expansions have helped ease pressure on the system.

“Overcrowding has since been in the past,” he said, though he noted that the population still changes daily with arrests, bail, and releases.

“We are monitoring that closely at the moment,” Elliot added.

Alongside the construction, Elliot said the Attorney General’s Chambers is reviewing the Prison Act to shift Guyana toward a modern, corrections-based model that supports rehabilitation and reintegration.

Elliot says all these efforts point in one direction which is building a more humane, effective prison system.