A hunger strike and lock-in by inmates at the General Penitentiary in downtown Kingston collapsed yesterday after 11 ring leaders were relocated and the facility searched for contraband, according to the head of the correction services, Major Richard Reese.

"Everything is back to normal at Tower Street," Reese told the Observer. "The inmates are eating light diet."

"Some had gastric complaints and were treated by a medical team, but there were no serious complaints," he added. "They took breakfast and supper today."

Nearly all of the 1,687 prisoners at the facility, built in the 19th century to accommodate less than half that amount, had for four days refused to eat or leave their cells, to protest about general conditions, plus the overcrowding and the length of the parole process.

Warders had feared that the prisoners were storing faeces and urine in unemptied slop pails with which to attack correctional officers - a tactic that prisoners have used in the past.

There were also concerns that the inmates might have attacked non-Jamaican prisoners who did not join the protest, forcing the authorities to remove the foreigners Wednesday night.

"We transferred and have secured the 36 foreign prisoners who declined to join in the hunger strike and who were being threatened with death by other inmates," Reese said. " We have also removed 11 of the main leaders today."

The relocation was incident free, correctional officials said last night.

Another 47 prisoners were moved to other institutions to help ease the overcrowding, and according to Reese, a reclassification programme will begin next week to determine which prisoners should be moved from prisons such as GP to other minimum security institutions.

Last night, the correctional services, in a separate statement, said the authorities had agreed to work with the Office of the Public Defender and the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights "to deal with all outstanding legal matters".

Reese also disclosed that a search team from the police's Caribbean Search Centre, assisted by 130 warders, searched the General Penitentiary as part of a wider action that included searches of two other high-security prisons, the South Camp Rehabilitation Centre (Gun Court) and the St Catherine District Prison.

At the General Penitentiary, 19 mobile telephones - out of 26 recovered at the three facilities - were seized as well as an assortment of improvised weapons.

Cash was also found during the searches.

It was not immediately clear whether prisoners found with contraband will face charges.

"It is the first time that we have used so many men on a search and it is also the first time that we have found so few contraband," Reese said.

The success of the search, in terms of the manner in which it was conducted, was a "reflection of access control management", Reese said.

Executive Class

Gardens with Gravel

Death to the Mullet!