Trade unionist calls for replacement of full GIS management 

Outspoken trade unionist Caswell Franklyn is calling for the removal of the entire management team of the Government Industrial School (GIS).

He insisted that even as a staff member remains on suspension with full pay pending investigations into reports two female wards had allegedly ingested harmful substances under her watch earlier this month, the people responsible for spearheading operations at the state-run institution should be given their walking papers.

In addition to saying that he was not pleased with the conflicting messages being publicised about the GIS, Franklyn said he was not comfortable with what was happening with the staff and the wards at the reform facility.

“That place is a hellhole,” he charged, adding that he was familiar with several unpleasant incidents that occurred at the GIS, particularly at the Female Unit in Barrows, St  Lucy, over the years.

The former Opposition Senator suggested that in order to bring a new lease to the GIS, the staff serving in managerial positions need to be replaced.

He added that there is also a need for the judicial system to stop referring children to the GIS for matters such as wandering.

“A lot of the things those children are sent down there for is nonsense. You don’t need to incarcerate children for some of these little things,” Franklyn argued, adding that it was no secret some of the wards come from homes where they have experienced abuse and other issues.

“They just leave home because somebody trying to rape them; the mother’s boyfriend is trying to do something to them. The mother can’t find them and calls the police and they charge the child for wandering and carry them and lock them up.

“And now that child has to go down there, she is angry, she is in pain, she is in trouble, and then she gets assaulted down there.… These things are hidden because it looks bad and nobody wants to talk about it,” Franklyn lamented.

In April, Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams declared that there was no mistreatment or abuse of wards at the GIS and any suggestion of such was “completely baseless”.

The Minister made the statement following reports of wards attempting to escape. In addition to media reports of abuse in 2021, several wards have reportedly attempted to commit suicide.

There is currently an ongoing full departmental inquiry into operations at the GIS by a panel that is being chaired by former Deputy Commissioner of Police Oral Williams. (AH)