The government is looking to have a single prison in the country based at Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara, removing the traditional holding centers at Brickdam and New Amsterdam.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement during a Department of Public Information interview.
Speaking ahead of today’s budget presentation, Vice President Jagdeo said the government has made provisions to further expand the Lusignan prison to ensure greater capacity. The move he said is to have a single prison.
“It is known that we want to make Lusignan and area where we house all of our prisoners. Since we got into office we built three buildings, we are about complete those and we are constructing another three buildings, together at the end of this year hopefully they will be completed, they should be able to accommodate 1,500 prisoners, the Vice President said.
In 2022, more than $3 Billion was spent on the Lusignan prison facility to allow upgrades and expansions.
The project is ongoing and when it is completed, prisoners will be housed in a dormitory-style setting furnished with beds and mattresses, unlike the holding bay facility.
“It will be the major center for hosting prisoners, but we want to change things too, we will have a side building for women’ prisoners, we want to do a field for sports, we are building academic school, so every prisoner has to go to classes, a lot of that sort of environment so that when you put people in prison there is a serious attempt at reformation,” Mr. Jagdeo noted.
The Lusignan prison is expected to have a large building subdivided into prison cells at lots four to six.
Upgrades to the facility will also accommodate a female prison, which will see the relocation of female prisoners from the New Amsterdam prison.
Additionally, works on the prison’s ‘vocational school’ is near completion.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login