Police even used a helicopter in their search for the prisoner throughout the afternoon.
Cilice, who was due to be released in October 2007 after serving two years for fraud, appears to have simply vanished from a work detail at the prison chaplainﾒs residence on the prison compound, raising questions of negligence on the part of his supervisors, according to National Security Permanent Secretary Mark Wilson.
Tuesdayﾒs escape came six months after a deadly break from the prison resulted in the deaths of a prison officer and an inmate, and raised concerns about security at the facility.
In the wake of the January incident, prison officials assured that security had been heightened.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Sidney McPhee of the Elizabeth Estates Police Station explained that since Ciliceﾒs last known residence was in Grand Bahama, and since he was charged in Grand Bahama with the crime he was doing time for, the Grand Bahama authorities have been put on alert to look out for him.
ASP McPhee said that no information had been received on Ciliceﾒs whereabouts up to Tuesday evening.
“The helicopter is [being used], but they are just combing to see if anyone is lurking in the bushes area, because he may have changed his clothes by now, and remember, we have a large Haitian population in the Joe Farrington Road area, and as he is of Haitian descent he can easily integrate into [that population].”
ASP McPhee denied reports that Cilice is a repeat escapee, saying that while the 21-year-old man was a repeat offender, this is his first escape.
“And so we are appealing to members of the public who might know him to, if he is seen, give us a call on the police emergency line, 919,” ASP McPhee said.
Police can also receive information at 322-4444 or at any police station.
This latest escape happened in circumstances that raise the spectre of negligence on the part of the prison staff, according to Mr. Wilson.
Cilice, a medium security inmate, was on work detail at the prison chaplainﾒs residence in the southern area of the prison compound when he escaped in the Yamacraw neighbourhood, according to officials.
His absence was only noted, prison reports say, when the supervisors took a head count after lunch.
While Mr. Wilson said he had no reason to be dissatisfied with the performance of the prison officers assigned to supervise the work gang from which Cilice escaped, he conceded that questions of negligence must arise.
“There is a spectre of negligence. We will not know whether there was negligence until we do an investigation, so we ought not to assume that there was negligence,” he said.
“But a person has escaped. There were officers there to prevent such an escape, and the alarm was not raised in a timely fashion, and therefore those are all concerns that we must have, and we must investigate.”
The prison will conduct an investigation into the incident, and report the results to the National Security Ministry, Mr. Wilson said. In the meantime, the officers who supervised the work gang from which Cilice escaped will continue to function as normal at the prison, he added.
Should those officers be found guilty of negligence, Mr. Wilson said the punishment would be that prescribed by the Prison Act.
Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming was out of office, and could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Wilson said the fact that Cilice ﾖ who prison officials say is Bahamian, of Haitian parentage ﾖ apparently found it such a simple matter to just leave did concern him, but added that there is more to consider.
“Yes it does concern me, but I donﾒt know that it is possible to conduct an effective work environment, or to conduct effective work, without allowing persons some degree of latitude,” he said.
“So while it does concern us, and we will have to look at ways to improve the security of work details, [the possibility of escape] is nevertheless a condition that comes along with work details.”
Prison officials explained that these work details are usually comprised of seven or eight inmates, generally from within the prisonﾒs minimum-security population and usually with only a short time left to serve on their sentences. There are also usually two guards assigned to each work detail, officials said.
Mr. Wilson said that it is “unusual” for prisoners to escape from work gangs, but added that this has happened about twice a year over the last six years. He also added that the rate of recapture of escaped prisoners over the same six years has been 100 percent.
“The Bahamas is a relatively small place, so thereﾒs really no place to run. Some persons have been successful in making their way to the United States, when they have escaped from prison, but that tends not to be very often,” Mr. Wilson said.
He pointed out that, while the possibility of escape always exists, it does not make sense for inmates with a short time remaining on their sentences ﾖ such as the minimum security inmates who regularly make up work details ﾖ to escape, since escaping prison is against the law.
“Itﾒs against the law to escape, and as a result of that, when you are recaptured you get time added to your sentence. [How much time is added to the sentence] is for the courts to decide,” he said.
Cilice is 5ﾒ9″ and weighs 139 pounds. He had not been recaptured by press time.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
