With conflicting reports of an illegal homemade gun being found at the Golden Grove Remand Prison, the Prisons Officers’ Association is conducting its own investigating to determine whether security at the institution has been compromised.
In an interview yesterday, association president, Ceron Richards, said while he could not say as yet whether a gun was found in “cell ten” of the north wing last Wednesday during a search by officers of the Maximum Security Prison.
If it turns out to be true, he said, it could have serious consequences on prisons officers' morale. He said once the investigation was finished, they would report to the public.
“The Prisons Officers’ Association at this time cannot say as a matter of fact that a firearm was or was not found at the Remand Yard in Golden Grove. What we can say is that we have been receiving conflicting reports which we will investigate and make a determination as we move forward.
“If the report given by the prison administration is found to be false, then that in itself will be a revelation of a very serious situation at our nation’s prisons, in particular at the remand prison at Golden Grove.
“If a firearm was indeed found, it would mean that security at that institution had been compromised and we believe without proper sanitisation, it will remain compromised,” Richards said.
Up to Tuesday, prisons officers maintained that a gun was found but prisons commissioner Cecil Duke, in a statement, described the report as “false, irresponsible, misleading, mischievous and unsubstantiated.”
He said the report was “designed to create fear and instability among members of the public and undermine the work that is being done by prisons authorities to maintain a high level of safety and security at our nation’s penal institutions.”