The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

A “MENTALLY ill” prisoner died after complaining of chest pains following a fight at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services on Friday.

Acting Corrections Commissioner Doan Cleare said yesterday that while he is concerned about the incident, he expects fewer altercations in a few days pending government approval for psychiatrists to work at the facility.

A 44-year-old man held at the facility died on Friday. On Thursday, the man had been sharing a cell with another mentally ill inmate when the two men got into a fight, Commissioner Cleare said.

Following the fight, the 44-year-old complained of chest pains and breathing issues and was later taken to the hospital where he died.

Police said in a report: “An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.”

About this latest incident, Mr Cleare said he is “very much concerned”, but hopes for fewer altercations with the addition of trained psychiatrists to the facility’s staff.

“I am very much concerned and that is why the government has acceded to my request in hiring four psychiatrists. Cabinet has to approve it and we hope to have them start working in a few days,” Mr Cleare said.

“You know Sandilands is not taking anyone from us pretty much and we have close to over 150 mental inmates and due to the lack of spacing we have to put them in cells with each other. So hence is the problem,” he said.

“So now that we’ll have four full time psychiatrists, they (mentally ill inmates) could now start to be treated, with the proper medication, because before that we were only a warehouse for Sandilands,” Mr Cleare said.

“Additionally, the government has also approved for eight of the correctional officers to be trained in mental observation to assess the inmates, because you know we were not trained,” he said.

“So hopefully within a few months, all should settle down in terms of trying to lessen the amount of altercations between these inmates,” Mr Cleare said.

This latest incident involving an inmate at the correctional facility follows several others in the last several months.

On October 25, inmate Kensey Cooper died in hospital from head injuries after having been in a fight at the facility on October 10. He was being held on a stealing charge.

The Grand Bahama native, who was in his 40s, was housed in a mental block in the remand centre, Mr Cleare said at the time.

On October 6, another 43-year-old was found unresponsive at the facility just after midnight. The man was on remand for causing damage and police said at the time that no foul play was suspected.

In June, yet another inmate was found unresponsive in his cell in the medium security dormitory of the facility.

Prison officials said at the time that no foul play was suspected.