The Bureau of Corrections and the V.I. Police Department staged a midnight shakedown at the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility early Thursday to reduce contraband at the center, the bureau announced.
The shakedown began at 12 a.m. with searches of dormitories and other common areas of the facility. The bureau’s news release said the main purpose of the activity was to eradicate the amassing of contraband at the facility and to create a safer environment for inmates and BOC staff.
Officers confiscated several cell phones, shanks and marijuana, they said.
“The operation was successful and effective," said Donald Redwood, acting warden of Golden Grove. "The BOC leadership is grateful for the support and collaboration received and exhibited by the VIPD through the sharing of resources and manpower. This was truly a shining example of interagency cooperation.”
The action came two days after an inmate was stabbed by another inmate, the second stabbing at the prison in less than a week.
On May 11, a man incarcerated at Golden Grove for three years while awaiting trial on a rape charge escaped from the prison and allegedly committed another rape. That was the "final straw" which caused then-Warden Basil Richards to resign.
The recent problems at Golden Grove, which is under a federal consent decree, have forced the Bureau of Corrections to delve deeper into its mechanisms and resources, as well as examine and utilize alternate measures to remove the violence and other ills that plague the organization’s facilities, the bureau said in its news release.
“This operation is part of a series of safety and security efforts being taken by the bureau to ensure that our facilities become safer environments for inmates and for the staff that works at our facilities,” said Dwayne A. Benjamin, the acting director of the Bureau of Corrections.
