Escape bid

An attempted escape from Her Majesty’s Prison at Dodds in St Philip has been foiled.

This followed reports reaching Barbados TODAY that an inmate whose name was given as Robert Harris had tried to break away from the farmhouse which is located on the St Philip compound.

Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson this morning confirmed the attempted escape.

“As I understand it, someone may have attempted to abscond . . . this is the word that was used to me from the farm . . . but was quickly apprehended with canine dogs,” Hinkson, who is Minister in charge of the penal institution, told Barbados TODAY, adding that the incident occurred sometime yesterday.

He said he did not enquire into any details because he was more concerned that the inmate had been caught.

“All I was concerned with is that the person has been captured, but you are free to call the prison . . . but there is no threat,” he added.

Because of the high level of physical and technological security within the facility, breaking out from the buildings poses a major problem. Inmates seem more prone to try their luck while working on the outdoor farm.

Barbados TODAY understands that this is the second time an inmate has tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to break free while on the prison farm.

Ever since the maximum security prison at Dodds opened in 2007, no one has been able to escape from the compound.

In November 2009, the Barbados Prison Service issued a notice seeking the public’s assistance in locating one Mark Anderson Franklyn who escaped while assigned to the farm.

Franklyn, who was 44 at the time, was from Ashby Alley, Nelson Street, St. Michael.

He was later captured.

The last time someone broke out of prison was in 1999 when the now infamous Winston Hall escaped from the former Glendairy Prison on Station Hill, St Michael.

He was shot dead by police in May 2004 after he refused to surrender and brandished a sword against officers, authorities said back then. Hall, a convicted murderer, had remained on the run all of that time after he scaled the walls of Glendairy Prison.

Efforts to reach Superintendent of Prisons Lieutenant Colonel John Nurse for a comment on this latest escape attempt, proved futile.