Richmond Hill Prison is a prison in Saint George's, the capital of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

. Known officially as His Majesty's Prison, it is run by the Ministry of National Security. The prison governor is Mr. Rupert Neckles, the Commissioner of Prisons in Grenada. The prison has separate sections for male and female prisoners. it held 463 prisoners, more than double its official capacity of 198.

History

The prison is on land that was used to house a military hospital since the late 18th century and the current building was converted into a prison in 1880. The wing for female prisoners was added in 1904. The Grenadian politician

Bernard Coard Winston Bernard Coard (born 10 August 1944) is a Grenadian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister in the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) of the New Jewel Movement. In 1983, Coard launched a coup within the PRG and briefly too ...

and other members of the

Grenada 17 The Grenada 17 were the seventeen political, military and civilian figures convicted of murders associated with the October 1983 palace coup against Prime Minister Maurice Bishop's government of Grenada. History On 13 October 1983, various off ...

were imprisoned in Richmond Hill Prison. In a report in 2003,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

described the conditions they were kept in as inhumane. The last of the Grenada 17 prisoners were released in 2009. On 25 October 1983, as part of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, the U.S. armed forces'

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...

attempted to capture Richmond Hill Prison to retrieve political prisoners, flying in on helicopters operated by the 160th Aviation Battalion. The raid on the prison lacked vital intelligence, including the fact that several anti-aircraft guns defended it, and that the prison was on a steep hill without room for a helicopter to land. Anti-aircraft fire wounded passengers and crew and forced one MH-60 helicopter to crash land. The Black Hawk pilot was killed, but a Navy SH-3H helicopter rescued 11 crash survivors.

References

Prisons in Grenada 1880 establishments Buildings and structures in St. George's, Grenada {{grenada-stub