By Elesha George
Jessica Thompson, the organiser of a series of recent prison protests to highlight the undesirable conditions inside the prison, sat dejected outside the Office of the Attorney General yesterday morning, after a planned protest was sidetracked by news of inmate victimisation spread among the protestors.
About seven people, inclusive of both men and women, had gathered to demonstrate their dissatisfaction in order to direct the attention of the authorities to inhumane conditions inside Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) and to alert them on the need for immediate action to be taken to improve the facility.
“Some people didn’t remember,” Thompson said, when asked why the number of protestors had dropped to less than when they first began taking action outside the prison.
And the small number of people who previously took part, it would seem, were scared away by the news that an inmate who had spoken with OBSERVER media last week about his hospitalisation, had been removed from performing his regular kitchen duties and that plans were afoot to keep him isolated from members of the public.
“We were here sitting and one of the persons called and said if I heard they start victimising the persons and them…they said when they went into prison to take some water for their son, they got the news,” Thompson told our newsroom.
Inmate Sheldon Hunte, Thompson said, was being victimised because he had spoken with OBSERVER media about concerns for his health after he had had to undergo treatment at the Mount St John’s Medical Centre (MSJMC) for five days after he was diagnosed with Urosepsis.
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