A ward who testified at the commission of enquiry into a fire at the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre in St Ann in May said not all the girls got food at mealtime as the commodity sometimes ran short.

The 15-year-old witness said when this was brought to the attention of the correctional officers who were on duty, they were told, "Go to yuh friends and mek dem give yuh." Additionally, she said, they were given only water for supper on a number of occasions.

The ward, who was giving evidence at the Council of Voluntary Social Services-National Volunteer Centre in Kingston, yesterday said sometimes the food was not properly cooked.

"Sometimes the girls throw back di food through the hatch," she said, explaining that food was pushed through a hole in the door to their dorms.

The ward, who others said had attempted to run away while being transferred from the office dorm to the cottage dorm, said she did not want to run away as she did not want to go home. "Mi neva did a go anywhere, so mi stop," she said. She went on to explain that she did not want to go to the cottage dorm because of a ward there. "She have har fren dem over deh an me an dem cyaah 'gree," she said.

Had to readjust

The witness said she did not like being moved from one dorm to the other, as she had to readjust to the girls on each occasion.

Furthermore, she said after being transferred she had to sleep on the floor, until another girl decided to share a bed with her.

For the fourth time since the start of the enquiry, a ward has laid blame at the feet of the police.

According to the ward, a policeman who left the facility in an angry state, returned to throw a missile into the dorm, which caught fire.

The ward said, so angry was the policeman when he first left the facility that he almost hit a shift supervisor, Hortense Higgins, with his vehicle.

"The policeman tek something from outa him pocket and use him right hand an' pull on something and throw it inside the office dormitory," she said, adding that she saw black smoke afterwards and heard the girls screaming.

She added that after the fire, a ward went to the policeman and blamed him for the death of her friend. When she related this yesterday, observers at the enquiry expressed shock.

Gun pulled

"She go up inna di policeman face an a say 'A yuh mek mi fren dead', and di policeman tek out him gun and say 'She fi try something'." The ward said Joseph Small, Armadale's acting overseer, took the girl away.

Another 15-year-old ward, who was testifying for the second time, also pointed to the poor conditions the girls had been forced to endure. The girl said she was one of seven who escaped the facility in early May. She told the enquiry that she ran away because she had to use buckets as toilets, and the food was not good.

The enquiry resumes on Monday when the final ward is scheduled to testify.

kimesha.walters@gleanerjm.com