ACCORDING to a well-placed senior official, Her Majesty Prison (Fox Hill) has evolved into a corrupt, hellish den that is “being run like a doll house.” He alleged that corruption is rife in the prison and must be immediately investigated.
I’m told that this week’s uprising at the prison was merely one issue on a long list of queries and unsettling events among the prison staff.
“I want the public to know all is not well at the prison, as corruption is there and it needs to be investigated. Even government material that comes into the prison is known to disappear, with no-one knowing who’s stealing these provisions,” this high-ranking source alleged.
According to my source, indiscipline has filtered through the ranks, particularly as guards are “playing doll house and since the appointment of the newest superintendent, under whom everything seems to be out of order.”
He claimed that although the prison is supposed to be a “semi-military force, nothing like that currently exists” and this is due, in part, to the “negative impact of the new administration.”
Apparently, morale among prison officers is also at an all-time low. According to this officer, the senior officers are remonstrating against the superintendent’s approach to conducting staff meetings. He noted that “unlike the last superintendent, these days junior and senior officers are lumped together in meetings, rather than separating the top brass—which starts from inspectors—and having administrative meetings with them, and then going to the lower ranks.”
Because of this novel approach, this officer feels that junior officers appear to be losing respect for those seasoned, ranking officers.
Addressing the selection of a new superintendent following Elliston Rahming’s departure, this prison official suggests that the government must choose a senior, experienced officer who ascended through the ranks and is aware of how to effectively oversee the prison.
“The government needs to look among the senior ranks and then make a selection. The next superintendent must be an honest person, who should have served at least 20 years and possibly holds a degree—although those senior officers, without degrees and who did come up through the ranks, are also deserving. You know, a lot of officers disagree with many of Mr Rahming’s policies but many are afraid to speak out, afraid to lose that promotion!
“To be frank, Mr Rahming is not a military fella, and some of his policies have caused the junior officers to lose respect for senior officers,” the source stated.
He also claims that since the superintendent’s appointment, they have adopted a policy that seemingly requires degrees for promotions. While he accepts that approach, he says that those “officers who worked hard and served long years should also be considered.”
It was also claimed that certain female officers are being victimized and sexually harassed. This high-ranking officer maintains that he has spoken to several distraught female officers who feel victimised, having been abruptly and unceremoniously moved from certain posts (eg, the offices) and placed elsewhere. According to him, a number of female recruits have also been transferred throughout the stockade because certain senior male/female officers were sexually harassing them and, when they refused these officers’ advances, they were promptly assigned elsewhere because the higher-ranking officer/s may have sought to exact his/her revenge after being rejected.
It has been alleged that there is a lack of accountability at the country’s main penitentiary.
According to my source: “Officers funds have gone missing without any accounting for it. The officers’ commissary has been closed for months. Money use to be held there in case officers needed to borrow something to pay school fees or had fallen on hard times. With the past administration, officers could have borrowed money, but they can’t do so anymore.
“When one looks at the inmates’ commissary, funds are also disappearing from there too. They say that there are about three different accounts, however no one knows who’s in charge of administrating those accounts,” he alleged.
Furthermore, my source alleges that the prison staff officer “knows nothing, and doesn’t (appear to) know what he’s doing.” He asserted that the staff officer “hasn’t worked in the trenches and shouldn’t be in that position, because he doesn’t know the jail, he doesn’t know.”
In recent time, prison officers have spoken out about their susceptibility to mental and physical illnesses resulting from their deplorable work environment. The prison service continues to be an understaffed and grossly underpaid arm of law enforcement.
I have always been a proponent of the government using some of the stalled $30 million from the Chinese government, purportedly donated to build a yet unseen stadium, to construct a new prison on a secluded cay, faraway from residential areas. Furthermore, in following the footprints of prisons in the US that are more efficiently operated by private firms, I am also suggesting that the government also add the privatisation of the prison to its list of “things to do.”
Frankly, it now appears that the Ministry of National Security and the Prison Superintendent have several pressing issues to confront, and this week’s staff unrest about their outstanding backpay was just the beginning of a brewing storm.
THE OLYMPICS—CHRIS BROWN AND TONIQUE WILLIAMS-DARLING
Like many other patriotic, appreciative Bahamians, I would like to congratulate our Olympic team, particularly Leevan Sands and our male four-by-four-hundred meter relay team, on their bronze and silver medal successes at the recent Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, although he won a silver medal with the relay team, Chris Brown’s journey must have been bittersweet.
Although Mr Brown was dignified in representing his country, he was edged out by the flying American—David Neville—who incorporated another sport into track and field and shamelessly dived across the finish line and instantaneously became the ‘Michael Phelps’ of track and field.
Frankly, I thought that Neville’s move was unethical and did not represent the spirit of Olympism. Although the rules of track and field suggests that the athlete whose torso crosses the finish line first wins, competitors that do so usually dip their upper bodies while remaining on their feet, instead of taking off and literally diving across the line.
What annoys me most about Neville’s lunge, which he used to beat Chris Brown by four-hundredths of a second, is his penchant to brag about this shocking display.
According to an NBC report by Alan Abrahamson, Neville says that “the dive was sacrifice” and plans to tell his grandchildren the story of his dive at the finish line. This, in my opinion, was an unethical display and we should protest this loss, even if it means going to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.
According to Wednesday’s press reports, Tonique Williams-Darling—the Olympic gold medalist in the 400m—was retiring. While Mrs Darling victory led to many exhibitions of national pride, the naming of the Harold Road highway in her honour was considered premature. A crescendo of voices have suggested that the then government acted impulsively when the highway was named after her, particularly since there may have been more deserving athletes.
Indeed, there are more worthy candidates such as Bahamian tennis pro Mark Knowles, track icon and coach Pauline Davis-Thompson, the Golden Girls and Olympic gold medalist and social activist Sir Durward Knowles, for whom the highway should have been named.
First published in The Tribune on Friday, August 29, 2008 under the byline, Young Man's View.
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