Coalition Raises Alarm Over Plum Park Conditions

By Mark DaCosta- According to a statement issued by the A Partnership for National Unity / People’s National Congress Reform (APNU/PNCR) coalition, the state is failing children held at the Plum Park Juvenile Detention facility in Sophia, Georgetown, and public monies earmarked for their care may have been diverted for political purposes.

The coalition contends that deteriorating infrastructure, substandard meals and alleged financial irregularities at the facility amount to a betrayal of Guyana’s most vulnerable young people, and it has demanded a full, independent accounting of how taxpayers’ funds allocated to Plum Park have been spent.

The APNU/PNCR says it has received troubling reports about the physical state of the Plum Park facility, where children and young people who come into conflict with the law are held while awaiting trial or serving sentences. The coalition argues that the building’s deficiencies, together with questions surrounding the quality and nutritional value of the food served to those in custody, fall far short of what any decent society should accept.