Ex-con recalls condom prison riot

Moses ‘Rice’ Treston was serving a 15-year sentence because of his love affair with guns at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre when a riot erupted in August 1997 over word that condoms would be dispensed throughout the prison community. Angered by the stigma, warders slacked off the job and inmates took charge. A bloody rampage ensued.

It’s a day Treston says he vividly remembers.

In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Treston said the inmates had just settled down to listen to their radios when news broke that condoms would be issued to prisoners.

“When them mention it over the radio, a whole heap a cheering gwaan, as the gay man them start make noise say them happy fi it, and whole heap o’ warder start laugh offa big man, but you see before the conversation done them go mention say warders fi get condoms as well a then all hell broke loose,” said Treston.

He said a warder who respected him delivered the news that they would be walking off the job and that he and others should be prepared for pandemonium. The only warders who didn’t leave were the ones guarding the towers.

“You see the warder weh patrol the ground, and the warder them weh deh pon section, and the warders in office, stores, kitchen, all those facilities, all a them walk go through the gate, so you see when that happen, the man them just start buss off them cell lock,” said Treston.

The ex-con tells The Sunday Gleaner that the prisoners who were not on lockdown used metal pipes to break out of their cells.

“One thing with prison, it full a makeshift weapon. When that happened, me just go take up my cutlass. You see the door them weh make prison at that time them carry some metal inna the groove o’ them. When you buss up them door deh and use the red brick sharpen them, them chop any man in two,” said Rice.

He said after the warders left, the prisoners rushed to the area where gay inmates were domiciled.

“Under them killing there, you find out say a 14 man did dead, but is not all gay man dead, because people take the opportunity to kill all them friend who them have conflict with, so not everyone weh dead did gay,” said Treston.

Despite the bloody riot being stoked by outrage over then prison chief Colonel John Prescod’s backing of the distribution of condoms to guard against the risk of a public health crisis, Treston believes he was one of the best commissioners of corrections the Tower Street has ever had.

“Is Prescod make the announcement when him should have let Notice (Dr Raymoth Notice) as the prison doctor make that speech. Him as a commisoner make it, and through that, fire reach him, and to tell you the truth, a just a mistake them make, because under Prescod regime, prison run calm,” said Treston.

The riot went on for four days before the military and police were able to restore order, Treston said, but all the killings and most of the damage had already been done on day one. He has not been back to prison since.

Succumbed to pressure

Treston said that the majority of male prisoners did not have sex in prison, but some succumbed to pressure of temptation or economic need.

“Man have them comfortable sex, man. You have three man lock in a cell and all three gay. What you expect to gwaan?” asked Rice.

Current chairman of the Jamaica Federation of Corrections, Arlington Turner, was also working when the riot took place.

“I was in one of the towers overlooking what was happening. We had officers coming from other institutions headed for Tower Street to help the staff. In situations like these, we know what can happen. The riot wasn’t so much against officers, but against inmates and inmates. That is when it becomes dangerous.

Turner said that the recent call by Father Sean Major-Campbell, an Anglican rector, for the introduction of condoms in prison caused jitters among the prison community, harking back to the bloody upheaval of August 1997.

“We were really on edge in recent times based on the whole argument coming back. We wondered why it was coming back again at this time. ... The frightening thing about it was that our commissioner said nothing; you would never have gotten her. She said absolutely nothing,” said Turner of then Commissioner of Corrections Ina Hunter, who was demoted two weeks ago.

Retired Lieutenant Gary Rowe, a 32-year veteran of the Jamaica Defence Force, has been appointed as the new prison boss.

A Sunday Gleaner report published April 7, 2019, revealed that a 2018 study conducted by the National Family Planning Board showed that the HIV prevalence rate in prison was 6.9 per cent, more than 100 per cent higher than the 3.3 per cent recorded in 2011. The statistic ranks prisoners as the third-highest risk group behind transgender women and gays.

Turner said that heavy security has to be maintained at the two sections of Tower Street where convicts who are branded gay are placed.

“The communication really coming from the commissioner at the time (Prescod) was telling Jamaica and the world that prisoners and warders were having sexual contact in prison. That is how it came across. He didn’t stay very long after that, because nobody would have respected what he was saying,” he said.

carlene.davis@gleanerjm.com