Prisons boss: Nothing in my hand

PRISONS Commissioner Leo Abraham said yesterday he has no documentation authorising the release of prisoners who are being held illegally in jail.

“Nobody told me anything.  All I know is what was reported.  No instructions have been given to me.  I have nothing in my hand and nothing on my desk.  I am in limbo,” the Prisons Chief said in a telephone interview. A report in a daily newspaper yesterday said 61 prisoners are expected to benefit from a Presidential Pardon as Government moves to secure the release of inmates who are being held illegally in jail. The report said 16 of the 61 inmates will be released immediately, while the other 45 will serve reduced sentences.

According to the report, the office of the Attorney General was supposed to forward documents, requesting the presidential decree to National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, who will then deliver them to President George Maxwell Richards. Minister Chin Lee was unavailable for comment, while Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillips is out of the country and is due back sometime next week, according to her communications officer, Rodelle Phillips. Rodelle told Newsday the AG did not mention anything to her about the presidential pardons.  “All I know is what I heard on the news,” she said.

The controversy over the detention of the prisoners arose following a challenge to the interpretation of Section 72 of the Summary Courts Act, which prohibits magistrates from imposing consecutive jail terms for more than three years in total, where the punishment for each offence exceeds three years. Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls could not be reached for comment up to late evening.