Dear Source:
A Government that says it is for justice should not act otherwise and expect that we won't notice its hypocrisy. In the case of Dr. Paul Maynard we have an extraordinary example of the government saying one thing and doing another. Dr. Maynard, a fellow Nevisian, is my friend, and was my doctor until he was wrongly jailed. Because of that act of injustice, I have learned of the terrible conditions at the federal prison, at the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
Try to imagine the inner circles of hell, and you have some idea what this federal prison in Puerto Rico is like. Prisoners may not enjoy the same freedoms as other citizens, but they are still human beings entitled to dignity and rights including the right to adequate medical attention. How can a federal prison, overseen by the United States, be allowed to disintegrate, so that it's become known as "the worst in the federal prison system," and as a gory, ghoulish place, where cruel and unusual punishment is its "culture"?
Presently, Dr. Maynard's health is at risk because of the inhumane conditions at that jail. Not even the pleas of Congresswoman Donna Christensen, addressed to the head of the Bureau of Prisons have made a difference. Back in 2006, a number of prisoners from the Virgin Islands brought a case to the federal court decrying the inhumanity allowed at Guaynabo.
Judge James T. Giles, the same judge who sent Dr. Maynard to that hellhole, heard the civil rights case of Parris v. Chavez. Giles had before him the prisoners' complaints of racism, medical neglect, and other indignities suffered daily at Guaynabo. He did nothing.
At the trial of Dr. Maynard conducted by Judge Giles, the jurors sensed there was something quite unfair about the whole prosecution and that's why they were undecided on 166 counts. Persons are convinced that the jury convicted Dr. Maynard of anything at all because of the animus of the prosecutor and the agent's fabrications. And because the court wouldn't let them go from their jury service after they convicted Dr. Maynard of two counts only. Once convicted, Judge Giles not only refused to let Dr. Maynard be free on bail waiting sentence, although he wasn't going anywhere. He also put him in Guaynabo.
Thus we see the callousness of such hypocritical souls in government. They speak of freedom, life and liberty, even as their every action slices and cuts against the values they purport to protect. However, scepters and crowns do tumble down. In time, all arrogant demonstrations of injustice come to an end. Citizens of goodwill must declare that what is happening in Guaynabo is beneath human dignity. We should demand that those who permit these crimes against inhumanity be discharged. No one else should be allowed to experience or mimic the depraved misconduct and inhumanity depicted at Guaynabo.
Whitman T. Browne
St. Thomas
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