More than a dozen death row inmates at Her Majesty\uffb4s Prison went on a hunger strike over the weekend forcing prison officials to hear pressing concerns and meet at least some of their demands.<\/P><\/p>\n
Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming told The Bahama Journal on Monday that the prisoners had ended the hunger strike at Her Majesty\uffb4s Prison following a \uff93very amicable\uff92 meeting on Sunday with prison officials, who agreed to address their concerns.<\/P><\/p>\n
In a petition delivered to the Bahama Journal, the condemned men claimed there were \uff93grave infractions of their fundamental, civil and constitutional rights\uff92 and had refused to eat their daily rations, take showers, and take advantage of their exercise time in the yard.<\/P><\/p>\n
As part of their petition, the inmates had requested daily showers and daily exercises in \uff93an appropriate area that is sufficiently ventilated.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
They also asked for the provision of a basketball court.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93This can be constructed using half of the backyard,\uff92 the letter said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93The manual labour is free. This project would achieve great strides in terms of providing good fundamental recreation, which is one of the main tools needed for reformation.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The condemned men also raised the issue of visitation rights. <\/P><\/p>\n
The prisoners called it \uff93absolutely unfair\uff92 to have relatives visit from abroad only to spend 20 to 30 minutes with their loved ones. The prisoners are pushing for that time to be extended to an hour.<\/P><\/p>\n
According to the petition, inmates too feel the need to have both a transparent and consistent system whereby they are afforded unrestricted access to shopping from the Prison Commissary.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93As it now stands, we are being denied a fundamental right which was enforced from the inception of the Prison Commissary,\uff92 the petition read. <\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93But with the passage of time, this fundamental right has been taken away without any explanation of any kind. In addition, in many cases, monies have been deposited on to our accounts by family members, but we have not been allowed to spend our money even for essential toiletries.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The four-paged hand written letter was signed by 13 death row inmates, including murder convicts, Trono Davis and Forrester Bowe Jr., who are challenging the mandatory death sentence before the Privy Council in London.<\/P><\/p>\n
Dr. Rahming explained to The Bahamas Journal on Monday that the inmates\uffb4 refusal to accept food and drink was a matter that has been resolved \uff93very amicably.\uff92 <\/P><\/p>\n
He admitted that all of the concerns are longstanding ones that inmates have clamored over for a number of months and in some cases, years.<\/P><\/p>\n
It is now his responsibility, he said, to look into the issues dispassionately.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93All of the inmates are eating and drinking as normal,\uff92 Dr. Rahming said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93[On Sunday], I met with those who may have had a problem. We have reached an understanding. I think that the points that they raised are longstanding and have obviously gone unheeded and I assured that senior management would meet this week and go over the matters raised and that I would be getting back to them to say which complaint has merit, what doesn\uffb4t have merit and what can and cannot be done and they have accepted that.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Dr. Rahming said once the inmates\uffb4 grievances have been addressed, he will call a press conference to inform the public of the \uff93true position.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal<\/SMALL><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All of the concerns are longstanding ones that inmates have clamored over for a number of months and in some cases, years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}