THE OFFICE of the Public Services Commission is still awaiting a ruling from Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions, on the fate of 20 warders who have been suspended from work at half-pay since 1999.
The 20 were suspended after 22 prisoners escaped from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (General Penitentiary) in Kingston in October 1999.
A statement on Friday from Charles Jones, Chief Personnel Officer, said that the Services Commission had considered the case of the 20 warders implicated in 2000. He said the Governor-General, acting on advice from the Commission, approved their interdiction from duty on half pay pending the institution of criminal charges against them, in keeping with regulation 32.
Since then, the Commission has been awaiting a response from the DPP.
"In the circumstances, where the matter involves the escape of inmates, the Commission is awaiting the ruling of the Director of Public Prosecutions who has been asked to advise whether the officers concerned will be charged in the criminal court or whether disciplinary charges should be brought against them in the event they are not charged criminally," Mr. Jones's statement read.
The plight of the 20 were brought to media attention two weeks ago by Lambert Brown, second vice-president of the University and Allied Workers' Union (UAWU).
He wants the authorities to reinstate the warders who were suspended after the mass prison break on October 8, 1999. He said the men were sent home although no charges were brought against them following hearing by a commission of enquiry into the issue. Some warders were also called to a preliminary hearing, but nothing has happened since.
On Tuesday, Earl Fearon, acting Commissioner of Corrections, expressed his concern that it was taking an "unduly long time" for officials to resolve the issue.
Mr. Fearon said correctional system was feeling the absence of the 20 warders. "The system would feel the absence of 20 warders, certainly at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre because overall we are experiencing a shortage. Not taking into account the Horizon (Remand Centre on Spanish Town Road in Kingston), we are experiencing a shortage service-wide which is in excess of 500 warders at this point in time and certainly, any number at all, you would be feeling that," Mr. Fearon said.
Mr. Brown charged that the move to interdict warders and send them home on a fraction of their salary before proper investigations were carried out, smacked of "incompetent leadership on the part of those who started this policy...this (the interdiction) is a foolish act. It's a waste of money, a waste of resources," he added.
He insisted that if the warders were exonerated they would have to be reinstated with full pay.
On October 8, 1999, 22 prisoners at the maximum security prison at Tower Street, downtown Kingston, jumped to freedom by scaling the perimeter wall of the prison compound. They made their escape by passing within three feet of a sentry box that was manned by a security guard attached to a private security firm. This escape led to the interdiction of the 20.
