My Editorial on the problems at Northward Prison certainly stoked some fires and I am pleased to report that the guards are now trying to stamp out the blatant throwing of drugs over the perimeter wire fence by ‘friends of the prisoners’. That this had been allowed to continue almost unabated for so long is still a reason for some concern.

The statement by Eric Bush, Chief Officer in the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, which has responsibility for the local prison system, that “contraband, including drugs, alcohol, weapons and cell phones, are not uncommon in prisons around the world” does not give me any comfort. Is he saying that this ‘normal’ practice is therefore “OK here”?

I can also vouch for the statement made by a prisoner that appeared on CNS recently that ganja was used openly while he was there, with officers turning a blind eye to its consumption, as an ex-prisoner told a similar story to me. However, I had not heard of the ‘potent homebrew’ prisoners were making from their breakfast cereal and stolen yeast!

I would not want Mr Bush’s job and I can see from his statistics that people are being caught and punished for using drugs at the Northward prison but it would appear that drugs is still a major problem there and other solutions must be found. And as for being a prison officer who is locked up with the prisoners – that job must be for a very special kind of person. Extremely dangerous and poorly paid for what they have to do.

“I would like to commend the men and women in the Prison Service for their honourable and dedicated service to the people of the Cayman Islands and encourage them to keep their heads high and continue to serve their country well,” Mr. Bush said. I can concur with him there.

I must commend again Lemuel Hurlston and his team for the well put together and timely document they compiled that was submitted to the FCO from the open public consultation they executed here. The UK revealed that people from the Cayman Islands submitted the most responses of any territory, making up 35% of the submissions.

The growth in crime rates was discussed more frequently than any other issue and contributors from the Cayman Islands raised over half of the concerns regarding crime. Our problems with gang crime was raised by the Cayman government’s own submission. With one attempted robbery and another actual robbery, both with the perpetrators brandishing guns at the weekend, even more fuel is added to the problems we have.

The interesting fact that the UK could and should help more was highlighted. But will they?

With the announcement on Monday (19) that Clan Construction Ltd, a Cayman-based company, has been selected as the general contractor to supervise and build phase one of the Narayana Cayman University Medical Centre (the Shetty Hospital) we did have some good news to report. Groundbreaking is expected in August so at long last something is happening. Phase one of the facility will include at 140-bed tertiary care hospital.

It was so sad to see the parents of the missing teacher’s aide, Nathan Clarke, having to leave these islands with no answers as to what has happened to their beloved son.

“It is now three weeks since our son (and brother to Sam and Dan) Nathan went missing and we leave the island none the wiser as to what has happened to him,” his parents said in a statement that was released to us by the RCIPS.

We don’t have a good record of finding missing persons here and there are currently three now with no real clues as to what actually happened. Rumours and theories abound but they are no comfort to the family and friends of Nathan.

“We cannot express enough our gratitude to the 100s of volunteers for their ceaseless searching, unending concern for our welfare and their generosity in making sure everything we could ever need was at our disposal, they said. “We leave here feeling numb and helpless but take with us an understanding of Nat’s life here.  The love and respect you all have for him gives us hope that answers will soon be found.”

What a generous statement these beautiful people left behind with no recriminations at the inability of the RCIPS to solve the mystery.

iNews Cayman joins everyone else with our condolences and we hope the police will still keep their investigations ongoing to all three of the missing persons.