Flooded Prison in Grand Turk, Relatives of Inmates says they are Suffering Inhumane Conditions

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, February 15, 2023 – Inmates at His Majesty’s Prison in Grand Turk are once again complaining to relatives about unsanitary and inhospitable living conditions at the facility.  Magnetic Media has received photos and videos in the past day that raise serious health and safety concerns.

The photos and videos expose not only flooding inside the prison with inmates forced to drag their feet through what is certainly dirty water but standing water outside the facility as well, the grey-coloured sludge visible just outside the prison’s windows.

Water has seemingly spread from the bathrooms to the cell areas creating an environment rife for breeding disease, even as the National Security Council pushes the Ministry of Health to prepare for any cholera cases coming from outside the country.

The issue has been experienced by inmates before, in 2019 current Home Affairs Minister Otis Morris had described the state of the prison as deplorable and vowed to fix it in the House of Assembly.

“Mr. Speaker, the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King noted, “there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”  These words, Mr. Speaker, could never be more relevant than today as I recall my recent visit to Her Majesty’s Prison here in Grand Turk.”

The minister went further to commit to bidding to fix the issue that is now, once again affecting the facility

“The ministry is immediately seeking to bid in the upcoming budget for the redevelopment of HMP infrastructure to address the collapsing buildings, the dysfunctional sewers and the condemned water cisterns and facilities.”

We have reached out to Minister Morris to find out what is being done to rectify the issue but up to news production time, no answer had been forthcoming.