A former Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard rank who is serving a life sentence in the Camp Street Prison, has gone on a hunger strike in protest against the food being served to him.
The prisoner, Deon Greenidge, was convicted for a 2009 murder and robbery.
His mother, Yvonne Beckles, told News Source that she received reports that her son has been locked away for the last two weeks following his protest. She claimed that she was unable to see her son on Tuesday and Thursday of last week when she made attempts to visit him at the Camp Street facility and was also unable to secure a meeting with the Officer in charge.
Upon receiving reports that her son was being treated “unfairly”, Beckles said she secured the services of an Attorney who then paid a visit to the prison and was able to see her son. “The Lawyer went in and when he came back he say my son story is very serious and he complained that they gave him sour food and mildew bread day after day and when he refused to eat it they locked him away, the woman recounted.
Beckles said she was also informed that her son was not being allowed to take regular baths and was now being denied regular meals. “I don’t know what is going on, I feel my son has already been chastised and now he is being even more chastised,” she added.
She said her son has taken a decision not to collect any food from the facility until standards are improved. She could not say if her son was being targeted or whether other prisoners were being fed the same meals.
She intends to make another attempt to visit her son on Thursday. “Right now its very much stressful. That’s my son, I just want everything to be alright.”
When contacted, Deputy Director of the Guyan Prison Service, Kyle Graham said he spoke to the prisoner yesterday, after paying a visit to the division in which he is housed.
He said he received similar complaints. “I immediately addressed the complaints and left strict instructions on how meals going to that division should be treated from yesterday”.
Graham said he has also instructed a senior rank to over look all meals going to that division and expects better conditions to prevail going forward.
Addressing the allegations of the prisoner being locked away and unfairly treatment, the Deputy Director said Greenidge is being housed in a separate cell and in a division that is lawful and in accordance with his sentence. He said too that if the mother “is so concerned and wish to speak to me then my door is always open, I am here to serve.”
The La Penitence father of one and former Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard rank was convicted in 2013, along with two others, for killing a young gold dealer back in 2009 after robbing him of some $17 million and dumping his body in the Essequibo River.
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