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SOURCE: ANTIGUA OBSERVER- In the wake of 23-year-old Jamaican national Chinlee Robinson’s death at His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) in January this year, the Superintendent of Prisons, Colonel Trevor Pennyfeather, has addressed questions regarding monitoring procedures and the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
He explained the challenges of nighttime monitoring, noting that during the “silent hours” when inmates are sleeping, officers “will just basically make a pass and ensure that individual is okay”.
Colonel Pennyfeather elaborated that “the difficulty there is basically, once the checks have been made, that you very seldom have to wake up every single inmate to ensure that they’re all right.”
According to the Superintendent, Robinson’s body was discovered “at 5:15 or so, when is the usual time to get the inmates up and awake so that they do the necessary toiletries.”
He indicated that “three or four [checks] should have been made that night,” though he acknowledged the limitations of the current monitoring system.
When questioned about 24-hour surveillance, Pennyfeather said that “additional officers so that you would have more frequent checks is possible and could be helpful”, but noted HMP lacks electronic monitoring within cell divisions.
“Outside of that, it would be that you have electronic support at each cell, because though you may have some electronic support on the external within His Majesty’s Prison, we are not yet at the stage whereby they are installed within, inside the various divisions,” he said.
Robinson’s family continues to seek answers regarding his death, with Attorney Wendel Alexander calling for a Coroner’s Inquest and homicide investigation.
According to reports, Robinson died just one day after appearing in court, where he had been granted bail pending the surrender of his passport.
A post-mortem confirmed he died from anoxia (lack of oxygen), trauma to the neck, and cardiac failure.
“I think in short, what the police said, you know, very possibly it’s strangulation.
That’s the probability, but the matter is still very much under the investigation of the police,” stated Pennyfeather when discussing the preliminary findings.
The Superintendent also addressed the inherent risks within prison environments, stating: “Wherever there are two human beings, irrespective to it being, you know, two inmates, husband and wife, brother and sister, cousins — once you have two separate human beings, anything is possible.”
He further elaborated on the prison environment: “Inmates are confined, they’re frustrated for various reasons. Individuals have various stresses on them.
There are disagreements, individuals not being very much trained or fair with solving their issues in one way or the other without it coming to violence. These things, they do happen and they happen not just in His Majesty’s Prison, they happen all over around the world.”
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They always come with statements after the damage done. Where was the oversight before?
I hope this isn’t just another PR move to calm the public.
That young man’s death should never have happened. Somebody must be held accountable.
How many more must die before we fix the prison system?
Why wasn’t this issue flagged before it turned deadly?
Can we get whoever did this autopsy to examine Chantel?
Well, well, well. I want to believe that ANR misconstrued what the Superintendent said.
1. Was it the police that determined the cause of death or a pathologist?
2. You stated that 3 or 4 checks should be made in the night but you failed to indicate how many checks were actually made on THAT night.
3. How many persons are in that particular cell? If there were only 2 persons in that cell and the everyone is looked in there unit, do you really need cameras in the cell? Even if the cell had more than 2, I do not think that should be a difficult investigation.
Superintendent needs to come better than that. What is stated in this article does not make sense – that is like trying to find an excuse. That young man was under your care irrespective of his nationality.
A question I have.
Was this Jamaican remanded, and if he was remanded, was he housed in a cell with other fellow remanded prisoners/prisoner, or with the regular sentenced prisoners/prisoner?
That’s a massive violation of it was the latter.