Four of the five inmates who escaped from the Supermax section of the Hattieville Prison late on Sunday night remain at large tonight. But the prison’s management had bigger problems on their hands this morning when inmates in the remand section threatened to riot. The situation was defused within an hour and the prison management maintains that no gunshots were fired and no inmates were injured but it made for some scary moments this morning – during which prison staff were denied access to the compound. Here’s the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This morning policemen manned the gates and patrolled the perimeter of the Hattieville Prison which was under lockdown.
Alfonso Noble, Guardian
“Is the prison on lockdown right now?”
John Woods,
“Yes.”
Alfonso Noble,
“Until when?”
John Woods,
“Until we the situation in there calm.”
And that “situation” was a near riot which erupted in the remand section of the prison at around 9 am.
John Woods,
“They were shaking the gates and stuff like that but that’s all.”
Keith Swift,
“In what section of the prison was the unrest?”
John Woods,
“Remand area.”
Keith Swift,
“How many prisoners in that area?”
John Woods,
“We probably have 400 in that area. Upstairs is cool so it is only 200 in that area.”
Keith Swift,
“And it was only in that area?”
John Woods,
“Also in Supermax there was a little ruction too, just upsetness.”
Rowland Parks, Reporter Newspaper
“Was anyone shot?”
John Woods,
“As far as I know there were no shots fired.”
More than 40 police officers responded and Kolbe Chairman John Woods says that by 10 am, the situation was under control.
John Woods,
“It is all controlled in one building but what they are doing is they are sitting down and having meetings with the guys raising cane and trying to get them to understand that that is not the way to go to solve any of their problems.
We still got the day to day business going on. We got our records, we got our accounts, we are processing people. I even saw my head of rehab sitting out here. He needs to be back with his rehab people. The head of the school was sitting out here. That makes no sense and that is why I got upset when I was coming in.”
Today’s unrest came two days after a breach of security in the prison when 5 inmates – including escape artists Dennis Quilter and Dennis Bainton expertly escaped from the Supermax section of the prison on Sunday night. Woods says protocol wasn’t followed.
John Woods,
“The way I understand it is that they made this little device to get through the locks on their cell doors and then they got out. I think it was two guys in one cell and then three guys in three cells and then they came out. They got out and they came out and they overpowered the one guard that was on duty and they got the keep from him for the main gate and then when they came out, they went over the fence and they were gone.
That is the first escape we’ve had out of that new Supermax building. That was a big shock to us because there were procedures that weren’t really followed. We are not too sure if the guy that was on duty, if he wasn’t really involved. The guys that escaped are notorious because of their escaping.”
Rowland Parks,
“Have you made any progress in apprehending these guys, have they been sighted anywhere?”
John Woods,
“Well really our official thing is they are out of sight, they are gone, and they are not our problem but we did do major stuff on Sunday night and then I flew at 5:30 in then morning, I was trying to look.”
Woods says today’s unrest may have also been triggered by the implementation of strict new parole rules.
John Woods,
“There was just a major change in the parole system and people are feeling a bit disrespected in what they have been working for, for years has suddenly been taken away from them because of the changes in the parole thing. People thought they would have been able to get out after going through a rehabilitation process and serving one third of their time and all of a sudden that has been changed to one half of their time. It might not be much for someone serving four years but for someone that has a 15 year sentence, the difference between
one third and one half is 2 and a half years.”
Kolbe Chairman John Woods says he’s personally been searching for the escaped prisoners by air but has come up empty. Dennis Quilter and Terry Bainton were last spotted in the Lord’s Bank area. Again the escapees are 30 year old Terry Bainton, 35 year old Dennis Quilter, 30 year old Jose Luis Cocom, 22 year old Jose Melgar, and 45 year old Juan Melendez. If you’ve seen them – you are asked to contact the Kolbe Foundation or the nearest police station.
UPDATE: News just in is that one of the escapees – Jose Luis Cocom was captured late this afternoon by prison officers in the Orange Walk Area.
