The Bordelais Correctional Facility.
The Government of St Lucia has announced that it will set up an inquiry into a prison-break.
Three convicts - two Venezuelans serving time on drugs charges and a St Lucian on weapons violations - escaped from the Bordelais Correctional Facility on the weekend
This was after masked individuals, armed with automatic weapons, exchanged gunfire with prison staff.
The Government said it planned to seek help from Venezuela in mounting the investigation.
The escape was a major embarrassment for the authorities, given that the prison is a modern one, having been built in 2003, to the tune of EC$29 million.
Basket of holes
Senior government minister Rufus Bousquet said the minister of national security had recently updated the cabinet on the weaknesses of security at the jail.
“My own understanding of a lot of this is that not only was there a tremendous amount of planning that went into this entire exercise, but it shows the weaknesses that are ingrained in the construction of this facility. I can’t relate these things in detail to show the weaknesses in this facility but, the report that was made to Cabinet indicates that for a facility that cost the St. Lucian tax papers such a vast amount of money, at the basic level, it is really a basketful of holes.
“There are numerous opportunities for people to escape and if they get the collusion and co-operation of people within, then it becomes a simple matter,” Mr. Bousquet said.
And the Opposition St. Lucia Labour Party, which was in power when the Bordelais Correctional Facility was built, has called for Guy Myers, National Security Minister, to be fired, in the wake of the prison break.
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