“All of us have to stop playing, the time for playing is finished!” So said Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart who has warned prisoners under his care that despite the threats being advanced towards his officers, they will continue to perform their duty fairly and fearlessly, even at the risk of losing their lives.
Speaking to reporters as he emerged from a three-and-a-half- hour meeting at the Ministry of National Security, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Stewart urged everyone, including the media, to unite “in the fight against the crime and wickedness that is going on through the land.”
Unwilling to reveal what was discussed during the meeting which also included the heads of the Police and Fire Services, as well as the heads of the respective associations, Stewart said Minister Edmund Dillon had promised to work on “short-term goals.”
Pressed to say what steps were being taken to assure prisons officers, who reside in high risk areas that the issue of housing would be revisited immediately, Stewart replied:
“We have certain strategic plans in place. The minister is working on immediate short-term goals and we want to give him that opportunity.
“We had discussions and the minister said he would be working on it with alacrity and assiduously and I want to give him an opportunity to do that.”
There has been a renewed call by the Prisons Officers Association for prisons officers who reside in high risk areas to be relocated. Just last month, Fitzalbert Victor was gunned down while washing his car outside his house at Prizgar Lands, Laventille. He was the third prisons officer to be killed in under six months.
Asked if that issue was not a top priority for him as the head of the Prisons Service, Stewart again said: “I have come out of discussions with the minister. The minister has given us certain assurances and I have that confidence in the minister that we will see certain action coming out this meeting. I want to give him that opportunity.”
As he was asked what next for officers, Stewart said: “Action, we hope. We live in that hope and faith that decisive action will be taken. Time will tell how immediate it is.”
To his officers, Stewart implored them to continue to operate in a professional manner.
“We are committed as a service to the protection of society and reduction in crime. We will continue with doing what we have to do, fair and fearlessly in a professional manner in carrying out our service as servants of the State and as servants of the people of T&T,” he added.
Asked if he was aware a cellphone had been seized recently from a high risk inmate and that the number of a senior officer had been found stored in the call log, Stewart said he was unaware but that checks would be made.
Association responds
Even as Stewart called on officers to be patient, president of the Prisons Officers Association, Cerron Richards, expressed his dissatisfaction over the outcome of the meeting. "The Prisons Officers Association is not happy with the outcome. I am not pleased at all," he said, adding:
"I am unable to tell my officers who reside in high risk areas as to when they will be treated with. I thought this meeting would have treated with that and by and large, I must say that I am disappointed."
Admitting that security issues were discussed, Richards reaffirmed: "The threat level to prisons officers remains very high. The reality is that prisons officers are being hunted down and killed and we don't think the response is in keeping with the type of realities we are facing."
He added: "We believe that this has to be treated expeditiously, as a matter of emergency and that is what we are not getting. The minister talked about looking for information and I am disappointed."