UPDATE: Georgetown Prison bars sawn off in failed escape plot

Last Updated on Friday, 3 January 2020, 18:18 by Writer

Guyana Prison Service personnel on Friday foiled a plot by several prisoners to escape from the Georgetown Prison at Camp Street, Prisons Director Gladwin Samuels confirmed.

The Guyana Prison Service later issued the following statement:

On Friday, January 3, 2020 at about 10:45 hours, while the Director of Prisons (ag) and other ranks were interacting with prisoners in the Security Block of the Georgetown Prison, it was observed that several bars of a cell had been cut and secured with cloth.

The Heads of Joint Services were alerted and the immediate search operation revealed that bars of another cell had also been cut. Hacksaw blades were discovered during the search that are said to be the items used to cut the bars.

Stafrei Alexander, an escapee from the July, 9, 2017 prison break and Ryan Jones who is serving twenty-eight (28) years for “Manslaughter” are reported to be the main players in the escape plan.

Systems are in place for these persons to be secured at another location.

The police, with the assistance of prison officers from the Georgetown Prison, will be conducting a full investigation into the matter to determine, among other matters, how the prisoners got possession of hacksaw blades and why the sawed bars were not discovered.

Sources said the suspects who were allegedly part of the plot, were being moved out of the Camp Street jail to the Mazaruni maximum security prison in Essequibo county.

Riot squad police and firefighters were among several security personnel called out to handle the situation.

In recent years, there have been two fires at the Georgetown Prison, one of which claimed more than a dozen lives and the other that flattened the colonial-era wooden structures.