CONTRADICTORY REPORTS EMERGE OUT OF DISCHARGED PRISONER’S
Reports of a disabled man being discharged from the prison while being unsure of his COVID-19 status have been met with mixed reactions by persons who know him.
An earlier report said the former inmate had parked himself outside the gates of Her Majesty’s Prison, ostensibly because he had nowhere to go and was afraid of infecting other persons.
Bishop Rolston Jeffery, who has been part of the prison ministry at 1735 for decades, tells REAL News that he heard the report on another radio station and made it his business to drive up to the institution.
He says there was no one, at all, outside the gates at the time, and he has no other knowledge of such a situation.
Meanwhile, our News Room was told by two other sources that the young man was, indeed, tested for the virus while incarcerated. They claim that he and his brother, who is also an inmate, were found to be free of the virus.
The sources also insist that the man has close family ties in one of the south eastern villages and, therefore, does have some where to go, having been discharged.
Therefore, they say that any claims otherwise by the former prisoner are designed only “to get sympathy and attention.”
Bishop Charlesworth Browne, who serves on an oversight committee at the prison, says he saw the young man this morning shortly before his discharge and, at the time, he did not appear to be in any distress.
The Bishop also confirms that a cellmate had, indeed, tested positive for COVID-19, but he is fairly certain that the discharged man was not infected.
He notes that keeping a prisoner even one day beyond the expiration of his sentence would amount to unlawful confinement. Hence, if a discharged person has nowhere to go, it presents the authorities with a Catch-22 situation.
Bishop Browne is known as an advocate for the inmates. He recently said he was seeking legal advice to determine whether mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus could be forced upon incarcerated persons.
