News U.S. student jailed for Cayman Islands' quarantine violation, family pleads for her release

[Clout]

The family of an 18-year-old college student who broke the Cayman Islands’ coronavirus laws on a trip last month has pleaded for her release from prison ahead of a hearing on Tuesday before a panel of judges who will decide whether her appeal can proceed.

“She cries, she wants to come home,” the student’s grandmother, Jeanne Mack, said on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday. “She knows she made a mistake. She owns up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.”

Skylar Mack and her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, were sentenced to four months in prison after violating the Cayman Island’s required 14-day quarantine period for visitors.

In late November, with her semester at Mercer University in Georgia complete, Ms. Mack flew to the Cayman Islands to watch her boyfriend compete in the islands’ Jet Ski racing national championship.

When she arrived, however, there was a problem.

She got there on a Friday; the championship was on Sunday. And per the country’s laws, she was required to remain in her hotel room for 14 days before going anywhere else on the islands.

To elude the restrictions, Ms. Mack, after receiving a negative coronavirus test, slipped an electronic monitoring bracelet from her wrist and escaped to a beach on Grand Cayman’s South Sound, where she saw Mr. Ramgeet win first place.

But the event organizers were notified that Ms. Mack may have been in breach of the rules and the police were called, her lawyer said. Ms. Mack was charged with leaving her home during the quarantine period, and Mr. Ramgeet was charged with aiding and abetting her. They were sentenced to four months in prison for the quarantine breach.

“This was as flagrant a breach as could be imagined,” Justice Roger Chapple said in court during the sentencing, according to the Cayman Compass, a news website in the Cayman Islands. “It was born of selfishness and arrogance.”

Sentence Is Cut for U.S. Student Who Broke Quarantine (Published 2020)

Skylar Mack, 18, was sentenced to four months in prison for violating coronavirus restrictions in the Cayman Islands. After an outcry, her sentence was reduced to two months on Tuesday.

www.nytimes.com

The grandmother of an 18-year-old college student who broke the Cayman Islands’ coronavirus laws on a trip last month is pleading for her release from prison. “She knows she made a mistake. She owns up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.”

 

[PGen98]

She's lucky she got her sentence cut down to 2 months, she needs to take that and serve it now. Next time you visit somewhere, read up on the laws and punishments, don't just assume you can do as you please. Hopefully it's a lesson learned for her and she can get on with things in a couple of months.