The day before he was found hanged to death in his cell at Her Majesty’s Prison at Balsum’s Ghut, Patrice Grant had what seems to be a full day: a visit with friends from outside and playing volleyball during the day, and dominoes with fellow inmates that night.

Grant was talking and upbeat during the dominoes game, inmates told Kenton Callwood, prison superintendent, and gave no clue to them or guards that he was planning to end his life, he said. He was receiving regular counseling, Callwood said, lived in a minimum-security area of the prison and kept busy with work and activities.

Callwood spoke to the VIStandPoint on Monday, January 7 about the apparent suicide of former Police Officer Grant and about the new programme called Sentence Planning being developed at the prison.

The prison and police investigation into Grant’s death is ongoing, but an autopsy released Friday, January 4 concluded asphyxia was the cause of death and no marks were found on the body that could indicate foul play, according to Tamara Archibald-Gill, police information officer. 

Grant was serving a 14-year sentence for attempted murder after he took hostages in the Road Town Police station and shot and wounded two fellow officers in 2004. His attorney said he ‘snapped’ because he was arrested the day before on domestic violence charges in connection with an altercation with his wife.

On Monday, December 31, police were called to Her Majesty’s Prison at Balsum Ghut just after 10:00 a.m. to find Grant’s body hanging from bed linen in his cell.

He was pronounced dead at 11:17 a.m. by a medical doctor, according to the Police Information Officer.

“This is a very unfortunate tragedy, and I wish to extend my condolences to Grant’s family,” said Police Commissioner Reynell Frazer last Friday.

In a later interview, Frazer said systems to help Police officers deal with stress were put in place soon after Grant’s hostage incident.

Help is being offered in the prison as well. The sentence Planning programme is designed to make incarceration not just punishment, but a chance to retrain inmates for life on the outside. The programme has taken longer to put into place than originally thought, Callwood said.

While Grant was not part of the full Sentence Planning programme, all its opportunities were available to him, Callwood said. Seventeen of the 106 inmates at the prison are fully involved, and the remainder will soon get the counseling, job training and rehabilitation programming included in the full programme.

The full-time counselor will begin work in the next two weeks, he said, and the Head of Inmate Activities is on the job and will travel to the UK for training next month. The Rehabilitation Coordinator is on the job as well, Callwood said.

“With sentence planning we might could have avoided that [the suicide], but once someone is determined to commit suicide they will do it,” Callwood said. “It would have been difficult to stop him especially when there was no sign.”

Grant had one minor violent incident with a guard in over two years at the prison, Callwood said. He was punished with maximum security lockdown, and earned his way back to minimum security with good behaviour. Though Grant was receiving counseling, he was not on any psychiatric medication, Callwood said.

Grant would have turned 31 on January 21, 2007, according to Police sources.

At the trial, his attorney Hayden St. Clair had said Grant was a model citizen and father of three who ‘snapped’ due to the stress of a strained relationship with his wife.  Court reports indicated and St. Clair confirmed Grant was angry at how he was treated by Police when he was arrested the day before the hostage incident.

In a recent interview, St. Clair said he visited Grant in prison occasionally, but did not notice anything irregular. He said he was not aware that Grant was receiving counseling.

“I was shocked that he died and the way he died . . . he must have been troubled,” St. Claire said.

On October 14, 2005, Grant was sentenced by Justice Rita Joseph-Olivetti to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of the then Police Commissioner Barry Webb. In her sentence, she had said that Grant could emerge from prison as a useful member of the community if he received counseling and learned anger management skills.

“. . . police officers also have human faces and that they too are subjected to the same problems as ordinary people and sometimes they too are not able to cope,” Joseph-Olivetti wrote. “One recognises that much is demanded of any police force in any country and that the state itself needs to ensure that appropriate facilities are in place to assist its officers to cope with not only official duties but with personal problems which might impact on their emotional welfare as well. One cannot help thinking that had there been someone for Grant to turn to, he might have been able to resolve his problems and so divert his anger and frustration without it overwhelming him with such dire results.”

At Grant’s sentencing, Judge Olivetti said she gave due consideration because of his age, his previous good character and that he accepted full responsibility.

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