Superintendent of Prisons hospitalised. Minister says it’s not COVID-19

Superintendent of Prisons Lieutenant Colonel John Nurse has been hospitalized suffering from an undisclosed ailment, Barbados TODAY has learned.

In confirming the development Friday night, Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams said the problem was not COVID-related.

But when asked to respond to a report that claimed that Nurse had suffered a heart attack, Abrahams said it would be inappropriate for him to divulge the prison chief’s medical business, adding that the superintendent himself would do that as he saw fit at the right time.

The minister was also questioned whether Lt Col Nurse’s ailment would affect his ability to continue running the sole adult penal institution as Superintendent of Prisons. He has held the post for the past 20 years.

He again declined to “speculate” on the prison chief’s future but confirmed that Lt Col Nurse walked into the hospital for treatment.

Abrahams told Barbados TODAY: “The superintendent of prisons reported feeling unwell yesterday and he went to the QEH for examination and treatment. At the moment he is at the QEH still.

“The superintendent will soon be in a position to explain his medical situation. It would be inappropriate of me to divulge his situation without his consent. At the appropriate time, I guess a statement explaining it will be issued.”

The minister nevertheless expressed his concern for the prison chief’s well-being.

“At this point in time, my concern is for his speedy recovery, and I wish him all the best,” he said.

Lt Col Nurse came over from the Barbados Defence Force to the Prison Service to oversee reforms within the service on October 2, 2001.

Four years into his tenure, at the 150-year-old main prison Glendairy, a riot and fire burned one-tenth of the facility and prompted the Owen Arthur administration to build a new jail at Dodd’s, St Philip.  He was formally appointed Superintendent of Prisons in December 2007, two months after overseeing the move from the decommissioned Glendairy to St Philip.

With an honours degree in Public Sector Management from the University of the West Indies, Lt Col Nurse also graduated from the Canadian Forces Land Staff College at Fort Frontenac, Ontario and is a certified jail officer under the American Jails Association.

Since his appointment and as part of the island’s penal reform process, Lt Col Nurse has modernized the structure and management systems of the Barbados Prison Service, oversaw and initiated a prisoner classification system, and reformed the prison’s rehabilitation programmes.

He proposed psychological testing and profiling of all inmates in prison, wrote a position paper proposing a new correctional service and developed a draft for the introduction of a parole system. These reform measures are yet to be adopted.

Lt Col Nurse’s latest challenges included an outbreak of COVID-19 at HMP Dodds at the start of the year, which led to the introduction of virtual visits of inmates.  Prisoners had begun appearing by video call in the Supreme Court in 2015.

Now, one of his officers, Trevor Browne, is before the law courts charged in connection with instigating a two-day sickout in 2018.

Browne, who is presently on suspension, is facing four charges of inciting mutiny or sedition at the prison.

The warder, with more than 35 years’ service under his belt, is charged that between May 1 and May 9, he maliciously endeavoured to seduce fellow officers David Davis, Ophneal Austin, Ellis-Vaughn and Stephenson Trotman from their duties by staging a sickout.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)