Rosemarie Sant
Several prisons officers have chosen to make the prisons dormitory their homes for fear of losing their lives while living on the outside. Prisons officers said they have received death threats which they reported to the authorities, but no one has taken them seriously. The officers said it’s as if they always have to beg for attention and protection.
The officers, who spoke with the GML Enterprise Desk on condition of anonymity, said they have no line of defence and they are growing increasingly concerned about their welfare and the safety of their families. As a result, they have chosen to protect themselves by abandoning their homes and making prison dormitories, which they describe as “an open thoroughfare,” their home.
To compound the situation, the marriages of many officers have fallen apart as wives have abandoned them and migrated with their families due to fear.
While president of the Prison Officers Association Ceron Richards said that six or seven officers have opted to stay in the dormitories “based on serious security issues,” prisons officers on the ground claimed the number totals around 30 and is growing. Richards explained that threats made against the officers “have been brought to the attention of the authorities, but for some reason or the other, we don’t get any attention, we always have to beg for help.”
Richards said that every day officers put their lives at risk to the detriment of their families.
“Many of the men their families have fallen apart because living with them is viewed as a liability. Wives have left their husbands, families have migrated, it is a real sad situation and there is no support from the State. But we believe that now is the best time for the Government to speak about officers’ safety and security given the debt that is owed to us.”
Officers said the dormitories where they live have few amenities but are outfitted with beds “for officers to rest on in between shifts.” But even this, they said, is better “than risking our lives on the outside.”
A spokesman at the office of the Commissioner of Prisons Sterling Stewart said they have no information that the men have been living in the dormitories. Wendell Bomparte told the GML Enterprise Desk that “the dormitories are not meant to be lived in because then it affects the men who need to rest in between shifts.”
Bomparte said, “It is not a boarding place, living there is not allowed because there is no area you can call your own 24/7. It is for batches, when another batch comes that is somebody’s space you’re taking up.”
In early 2015, prisons officers reportedly discovered a plan for paid hit men to kill several officers who were involved in jail cell searches and raids. Even with this information in hand and a report made to their superiors, nothing has been done to protect them and their families.
One officer, David Millette, was shot dead in the driveway of his Second Caledonia, Morvant, home in November, last year. Officers also alleged that “the close relationships which some inmates have with their seniors put our lives at risk.” This, they said, made them feel unsafe and the situation becomes worse every time an officer is attacked or loses his life.
They said since the murder of prisons officer Fitzalbert Victor in February, nothing has been done to ensure their safety and security or that of their families. Richards said the officers want to do their jobs, but they need the Government to “do what is necessary to protect prisons officers.” He said they want a Law Enforcement Safety Act, a housing policy, and the removal of officers from high-risk areas.
Richards said the prisons officers “put their lives at stake but the State continues to fail them.” He told the GML Enterprise Desk that they are meeting with Finance Minister Colm Imbert tomorrow (Tuesday), and they intend to raise with him the “issue of houses or land for prisons officers.”
“We do not want bonds, we prefer they settle the debt owed to prison officers by giving us what we really need—HDC housing or offset the debt owed to us by giving us government land, that will be more meaningful.
“Right now many of us are renting because we cannot afford the mortgage on the open market, and because of our salaries we cannot access the government two per cent subsidy on housing loans. Renting is not the best option. Give officers houses or land so that they can manage their security,” he said.
Former national security minister Gary Griffith told the GML Enterprise Desk that when he was minister he got a list from the Police, Prison and Army of officers whose lives were under threat.
Griffith said he recommended to the then National Security Council that the officers be allocated HDC homes under the ten per cent provision which is made for members of the protective services.
But he said his recommendation was turned down by the council because “certain people felt that the ten per cent allocation was for MPs to use at their discretion.”
Griffith said the issue of housing for officers was also critical to their safety and security.
Siezed contraband returned to inmates
Prisons officers work for salaries ranging between $6,000 and upwards of $13,000 depending on their level. A prisons officer one or PO1 earns $6,000 to $8,000 a month; a PO2 earns $8,000 to $12,000; and a prison superintendent earns between $12,000 and just under $14,000.
Prisons officers said their salaries cannot compensate them for the risk which they face daily. They said they often conduct searches on inmates and seize contraband, yet they said they are “instructed’’ to return the contraband under the pretext that it will “save officers’ lives” and also “assist in intelligence gathering.”
The officers said under the former People’s Partnership government “grabbers, jammers and bulletproof vests were ordered for all officers, yet to this day the vests are yet to be distributed.”
We are told that the “jammers were only recently installed and put into operation in Port-of-Spain, whilst in the Maximum Security Prison jammers have been operational since 2015, but are only on during the day.” The officers claimed that it was because Senior Superintendent of Prisons David Millette ordered that the jammers be put on in the night that he was murdered. They claimed that after Millette’s murder negotiations took place with the high-profile inmates and their seniors “to turn the jammers off after 8 pm.”
Prisons officers are also alleging that several senior officers had information about the impending jail break last July; the officers also say that those who are charged with protecting them (their seniors) are also aware that there is a hit list with several prisons officers named.
They complain that “certain inmates are ‘shot callers’, so they are given and afforded luxuries that the average prisoner does not get.”
According to them, one such prisoner (name called) has a “TV and a DVD outside his cell at the Maximum Security Prison.” They also said laptops and portable DVD players are granted to prisoners by a senior officer, whom they identified, “for so-called educational use.”
They admit that a “22-inch TV was found in the remand section of the Port-of-Spain Prison D2 Division cell 14 along with an iPad, a PS4, a fan, blender, tablet, court and process handcuffs, and other contraband items.”
That cell, they said, is occupied by remand prisoner (name called) aka “Ten Cents,” who is on a murder charge. The man is said to be the leader of a well-known gang. Those who assist the prisoners, they said, are linked to some high-profile inmates and once they do what is asked of them, “they are given cutbacks.”
The officers are claiming that creative ways are found to bring arms and ammunition into the prison. They said, last year, there was a function at the prison and “guns and grenades were brought in the music boxes. They were removed while the music was being set up.”
During “Operation Clean Sweep,” earlier this year, which was led by government ministers, the officers said three guns, a silencer and six extended magazines were found, and shortly after that operation prisons officers in a routine check found more than 30 cell phones.
The officers explain that inmates have taken to “hiding their contraband goods in the roof, they remove the ceiling and hide things in there.”
Dillon: Protection of security security forces a priority
Asked about reports that several prisons officers have taken to living in prison dormitories for their own safety and protection, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said the security of the nation’s security forces was a priority for the Government. He said, “We are going to ensure the protection of all servicemen as they continue to do their jobs safely and securely.”
He did not want to go into details on what action is being pursued to ensure the security of not just the prisons officers but other arms of the national security forces whose lives may be under threat because of their jobs, but he told us, “Government and the Minister of National Security would do what is required to protect the lives of those who give their lives in service for the country.”
PRISONS OFFICERS MURDERED SINCE 2001:
2001 December 12—32-year-old Atwell Sandy shot and killed in Cascade
2003 May 4—49-year-old Winston Sandy shot dead in Laventille
2005 March 17— 49-year-old Anselm Paul shot dead in Laventille
2008 June 18—31-year-old Anim Joseph shot dead in St Joseph
2009 November 7—35-year-old Ian Seegobin shot and killed in Arouca
2010 January 23—32-year-old Nataki Halloway strangled in Gasparillo
2010 March 28—36-year-old Bernard Kirk Thomas shot dead in Toco
2010 June 10—53-year-old Eric Simmons shot dead in Laventille
2010 July 6—35-year-old Marvin Diaz shot dead in Gasparillo
2010 August 21-21-year-old Reynold Parris shot in Malabar, died at EWMSC
2013 November 7—42-year-old Andy Rogers shot dead in Arima
2014 June 15—37-year-old Dominic Bernard stabbed to death in Pointe-a-Pierre
2015 July 17—27-year-old Andell Primus shot and killed in Morvant
2015 November 2—50-year-old Superintendent of Prisons David Millette shot and killed in Morvant
2016 February 29—32-year-old Fitzalbert Victor shot outside his Prizgar Lands, Laventille, home. He died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital
The National Security Ministry has set up an official page paying tribute to the fallen officers indicating that all of the officers murdered over the years were “targeted as a consequence of official duties.”