The escape of four detainees from the prison of Petit-Verger tends, once more, to show that the situation in prisons is getting worse. The administration has opened an enquiry to discover whether the escape was due to negligence of prison officers or if there was internal complicity. Two prison staff are already in the authorities? sights. Although the commissioner of prisons, Bill Duff, looks aware of the hugeness of his task, the lack of discipline shown by all prisoners, which allows them to do whatever they want, is becoming more palpable everyday.

Too easy to be true

Mahamad Swadec Absoolah, Yassin Krishnajee, Stephano Azza and Thierry Joseph escaped from the prison on Wednesday at 4.15pm. The official version says that officer Krishnaduth Jhugroo was at the prison entrance when the four prisoners threatened to stab him and grabbed the keys to open the prison doors. However, even though there is a lack of discipline in prison, this version appears ?too easy to be true.?

?It is a fact that there are problems related to communication and I am the first to admit that, if communication (within the administration) was improved, this would help us a lot to do our job properly ? in the way we deal with incidents in prison but also in the way we use information we have to prevent incidents from happening,? the commissioner admits. It is thus clear that the authorities first have to solve the problems within their own administration before being able to deal with prisoners. There seems to be a problem of trust between the management of prison and the officers. And the latest episode at Petit Verger may not improve matters.

Following this escape, one senior member of staff has been asked to take early retirement while a warder has been interdicted. Though it is not yet clear whether the departmental enquiry will conclude that internal complicity played a part, the authorities do not seem to be excluding this possibility. ?If it is proved there was internal complicity, disciplinary measures will be taken,? said Bill Duff.

The commissioner admits that there was a lack of staff in prisons. However, necessary steps have been taken and 150 new prison officers have been recruited. ?According to the warder, the problem was not a lack of staff on duty. The problem is elsewhere.? So is it internal complicity or negligence by the prison officers?

Focused on other incidents

Meanwhile, the four men are still on the run. Operations by the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Division and the Emergency Response Service have been in vain so far. Mahamad Swadec Absoolah was condemned to four years? imprisonment for drug trafficking in July 2004. Yassin Krishnajee had been in prison since November 2004 for heroin trafficking and was to stay in prison until December 2007. Thierry Joseph was serving four years? imprisonment for possession of heroin and would have been freed in August 2007 while Stephano Azza was to be freed in April 2007.

Just before their escape, the 278 detainees of the New Wing of Beau-Bassin refused to go back to their cells in protest against the attack of a prisoner in Beau-Bassin. The latter is said to have been sodomized by seven men. Some prison officers of Petit-Verger assert that the four prisoners took advantage of the fact that their attention was focused on the incidents in Beau-Bassin to escape. Only the results of the departmental enquiry will prove what really happened there last Wednesday. Unless the detainees are found and give their version of the story?