$20,000 for living in remand yard "Hell Hole"

High Court judge Carol Gobin on Friday described the Port of Spain Remand Yard as a "hell hole" and ordered the state to pay a prisoner $20,000 in compensation for the "inhumane" conditions he suffered during the time he spent at the facility.

Although she ordered the compensation the judge said she found it "difficult to attach a value to the inherent dignity of a man".

The prisoner, Colin Edghill, s facing a charge of murder. He was remanded to the Port of Spain Prison on November 20, 2003 and was eventually transferred to the Golden Grove Remand Prison.

In November 2004, Edghill and another remand inmate, Ronald Harewood, filed separate motions alleging that their constitutional rights were being denied, describing their treatment as cruel and unusual punishment.

Gobin agreed with Edghill's complaints that the compound and cells had poor sanitation and lacked running water, among other shortcomings and ruled that he should receive $75 per day for the time he was jailed at the Port of Spain Remand Yard.

The other person who brought a similar case before the courts was killed on December 31, 2007.

Gobin dismissed his application and appointed Harewood's mother, Joan Richards, to carry on the proceeding on his behalf.

Gobin said, "The Remand Yard ...is a hell hole in which a man presumed innocent is deprived of the elements necessary for human life."

She said the level of pain and suffering inflicted during a prisoner’s detention was “unsatisfactory and unacceptable,” adding that the treatment of prisoners makes a mockery of the presumption of innocence.

"The executive needs to be reminded that the treatment at the remand yard, Port-of-Spain, cannot continue, not only because it is treatment which is debasing and dehumanising to prisoners and to prisons officers who are duty bound to participate in the process, but because it is treatment which, if after having been exposed, is allowed to continue, threatens to redefine us as a people,” the judge stated.

The state is concerned about the ruling and might consider an appeal. The senior counsel for the state in the matter, Avory Sinanan, said his greatest concern is that it is likely to "open up the flood gates" for other remand prisoners to also seek compensation.