Will Bordelais Strengthen Internal Security After Latest Incident?

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ordelais has been featured in plentiful news items for the past few months relating to shootings, violence, suicide attempts and escapes. The latest incident involves
a prisoner whose name had made headlines several times before.
Prison Director Verne Garde issued the following statement: “On Saturday 19th August at approximately 8:15 a.m., inmate Junior Duncan, who was the same inmate involved in the riot earlier in June, got into an altercation with inmate Emmerson Dornelly. Dornelly was subsequently brought to St. Jude Hospital via ambulance and treated for two stab wounds to the chest. He is now in stable condition.”

The incident marked the third involving Duncan which had made local news headlines, the second leaving him with a gunshot wound to the shoulder (an action reportedly taken by prison guards because of Duncan’s and another inmate’s refusal to disarm). According to Garde, all incidents are now under investigation by the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force.

Questions have arisen in the public and on social media concerning actions taken to prevent difficult prisoners from posing a threat to other inmates and guards.

But, while the queries come out of concern from the Saint Lucian public, it may be helpful to consider that the Bordelais Correctional Facility currently holds over 500 criminals, many of whom have been detained for violent crimes.

“Working in the prison you can’t take anything personal. It’s not us against them,” Garde said relating to difficult inmates such as Duncan, “we still respect them and respect their human rights.”

Inmates are very creative with the resources available to them, using them for more than just hygiene and housekeeping purposes. Although the facility reportedly carries out weapon searches every day (which often results in the confiscation of cell-made weapons), inmates always manage to make more materialize by the next search. During Operation Search Seizure 2017 on 3 June, 33 cell-made weapons were found and seized.

“This is nothing new to the prison,” the prison director said. “One day it could be Junior Duncan and the next day it’s somebody else.”

He further explained that there are many challenging inmates who come in and out of the prison every day and there are methods to deal with them.

Inmate Junior Duncan currently belongs to the maximum-security unit, and wears the yellow prison uniform implying that he is a high-risk inmate. But Garde assures that he will be moved to a more secure location in the prison.

Duncan is currently incarcerated at Bordelais Correctional Facility for robbery.