By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE OFFICE of the Public Services Commission is to receive a report from Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), soon on the fate of 20 warders who have been suspended from work at half-pay since 1999.
Charles Jones, the Civil Services' Chief Personnel Officer, said on Monday that the Commission had made checks on the case within the past two weeks and was assured by the DPP's office that the report would given to it soon.
Mr. Pantry told The Gleaner yesterday that he would ask someone in his office to look into the matter.
The 20 warders were suspended after 22 prisoners escaped from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (general penitentiary), in Kingston, in October 1999.
The DPP, Mr. Jones explained last December, was asked to advise whether the officers concerned would be charged in the criminal court, or whether disciplinary charges should be brought against them in the event they are not charged criminally.
The DPP was asked to give a ruling after the Services Commission considered the case of the 20 warders implicated in 2000 and they were suspended. The move was approved by the Governor-General, acting on advice from the Commission and in keeping with regulation 32.
Since then, the Commission has been awaiting a response from the DPP, Mr. Jones said in a statement.
The plight of the 20 was brought to media attention last December by Lambert Brown, second vice-president of the University and Allied Workers' Union (UAWU). Mr. Brown reiterated yesterday that he wants the authorities to reinstate the warders.
He said the men were sent home, although no charges were brought against them, following a hearing by a commission of enquiry into the issue. Some warders were also called to a preliminary hearing, but nothing has happened since.
"Justice delayed is justice denied. It's been three and a half years (and) the warders are being denied a fair hearing. It is an unjust punishment. It is cruel and inhumane what they are doing to these warders. They should try them, or recall them to work," Mr. Brown said yesterday.
Last year, Earl Fearon, acting Commissioner of Corrections, also expressed his concern that it was taking an "unduly long time" for officials to resolve the issue and said the correctional system was feeling the absence of the 20 warders.
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 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.
