The Home Affairs Ministry is in the process of conducting its inquiry into the conduct of the senior officers at the Georgetown Prisons on Mash Day.
Five high-profile prisoners, Shawn Brown, Troy Dick, Andrew Douglas, Dale Moore and Mark Fraser, escaped from the Camp Street killing one guard and injuring another in the process. They are still at large.
The board of inquiry, which investigated the circumstances surrounding the breakout pointed to a number of lapses by the senior officers. It recommended that two very senior officers should be removed from their positions and two others be sent on early retirement. For another, it recommended that promotion be withheld for five years.
Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, told Stabroek News that the officers named in the report have been sent on leave and three others of equal rank have been recalled from their annual leave. Another has been transferred to the Mazaruni Penal Settlement.
Commenting on the recommendation that the officers should be sent on early retirement, Gajraj observed that experienced prison officers were not readily available and that would be a factor in how the recommendation was implemented.