Murdered prisoner Rishi Ramoutar would be alive today if the prisons authorities had heeded advice from prisons officers. According to police reports, 32-year-old Ramoutar died after being taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, on Wednesday night after he was beaten in the infirmary of the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca. At present, the infirmary is used to house inmates being punished for breaching prisons rules, but is also used to house inmates who have matters pending before the courts, according to an officer familiar with the incident.
Police said prisons officers were doing routine checks when they found Ramoutar, who was serving time for marijuana possession, bleeding from wounds to the body and face. Officials believe he was beaten with a mop stick. Ramoutar was taken to the hospital, but died around 11.30 am the following day. An autopsy revealed he died as a result of blunt force trauma.
According to the prisons report, Ramoutar was making noise in the infirmary while the other inmates were watching television. When asked to be quiet he became louder and even louder when the other inmates increased the volume on the television. After some time Ramoutar went to the bathroom and was followed. There, he was beaten by the inmate until he collapsed.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, the officer, who asked not to be identified, said neither Ramoutar nor his killer should have been detained in the infirmary in the first place. He added that the inmate who beat Ramoutar to death is a convicted murderer and should not have been at the minimum security prison at all, as his status requires a maximum security confinement. He said the prisoner was sent to a maximum security prison yesterday.
“How can you put an inmate who is charged for marijuana with an inmate who is convicted for murder? That was a recipe for disaster. Lifers are kept at a maximum security prison or Port-of-Spain prison,” the officer said. Prisons officers protested against placing healthy inmates in the infirmary and have been advocating for a cell block to place inmates that are being punished for violating prison rules after the original cell block was taken over by the remand prisoners.
Attempts to call Commissioner of Prisons Conrad Barrow were unsuccessful, as calls to his mobile phone went unanswered yesterday.