~ Staff and Prisoners are worried for their safety. ~
PHILIPSBURG: --- Some staff at the Pointe Blanche House of Detention and the prisoners are worried about their safety since the institution is short-staffed, and many prison guards who are supposed to report to work are not showing up for work. Questions are now being asked if the prison staff are on a silent protest.
SMN News has been reliably informed that several prison guards have opted not to report to work since Prison Interim Director Steven Carty was removed in October 2024.
The source said that the shift overseers or supervisors open the prison very late, during midmorning.
Prisoners get their meals very late and even meals they consider unsafe or unhealthy. Besides the staffing issues, prisoners are denied access to the doctor or prison nurses since they, too, opted not to show up for work on weekends.
SMN News further learned that the nurses are instructing those on duty to dispense painkillers to prisoners who complained of feeling unwell.
The source said the prison gym was closed, and the prisoners were not properly explained. They said the prisoners were told that they were sentenced to serve hard labor and that they did not need a gym while understaffed.
Efforts to reach the demissionary Minister of Justice, Lyndon Lewis, proved futile this morning since he could not be reached by telephone. As soon as the Minister is reached, this article will be updated.
On Friday, the Parliament of St. Maarten will reconvene a meeting requested by MP Sjamira Roseburg to discuss the safety of the detention institution in St. Maarten.
