Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday August 22 4:58 PM EDT
Danny Coke, an inmate of the St. Catherine District Prison in Spanish Town, west of Kingston, was set on fire and burned to death while Wilmore Johnson, in the same prison, was stabbed to death, the Jamaica Observer said.
Two days of rioting at two major penal institutions followed a proposal by Commissioner of Corrections John Prescod in a radio interview Tuesday to distribute condoms in the prison system as a method of halting the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The four men killed and 12 others injured were accused by fellow inmates of being homosexuals, the newspaper said.
Prescod's announcement also prompted a strike by prison guards, who accused him of implying they were homosexuals. Police and soldiers were called in to quell the disturbances at the prisons.
Inmates at St. Catherine attacked prison supervisors and set fire to portions of the prison Thursday. Firefighters contained the blaze to one floor of a three-story cell block.
On Wednesday, inmates Leston McKenzie, 33, and Lendon Ambersley, 28, were stabbed to death in Kingston's General Penitentiary.
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