Prison Officers’ Association (POA) president Ceron Richards said yesterday his members were breathing a little easier after a second meeting with Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and National Security Minister Edmund Dillon bore fruit on a way forward over legislation to ensure their protection, even when off-duty.
Richards said Al-Rawi agreed to appoint a special committee to look at the legislation during the meeting. He described the meeting as “progressive,” adding it formulated a road map moving forward and a direction hey were happy with.
“This should see drafts completed in approximately six weeks of a number of new legislation and some amendments to existing legislation. It will be a very tedious exercise…we are testing it at this stage…we are happy and understand the role the AG has itemised and it is for us now to go with him,” Richards said.
He said there are five main areas to be dealt with and while he was not ready to disclose the specifics, he said is confident the special committee will draft the possibilities.
“We are in the exploring stage and later on we will see what advances to Cabinet and then to Parliament. We are satisfied on the road to reach somewhere…we anticipate and suspect the AG this time around is taking us somewhere and we would concentrate on that for now,” Richards said.
During the meeting, Dillon also asked the POA to submit proposals on ways officers can be protected off the job.
Legislation is said to be currently drafted to help protect them.
He added, “The Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Prisons are actively involved in a number of security initiatives which can and should facilitate the type of support our members need, which will give them an added sense of security.”
Richards said while they are aware crime and criminality is now endemic, they remain positively optimistic they will achieve “results which can place not only us, as prison officers, but other members of the protective services in a better place to not only address our security needs but those extremely important security concerns of the people of T&T.”
He assured “we are focused on a progressive roadmap. We will not be sidetracked.”
On November 3, Richards and some of his member visited the Canadian High Commission seeking information about asylum in that country following recent attacks against colleagues.
This the murders of two prison officers last month. Prison officer Glenford Gardner, 44, was shot dead outside a house he owned at Sea Trace, Diego Martin, on October 26.
He was shot dead hours after prison officers confiscated cellphones and other contraband items at the Port-of-Spain Prison. Earlier in October, prison officer Richard Sandy was killed by an ex-convict while at a bar in South Trinidad.
In the most recent incident, on Saturday night, an 11-year-old daughter of a prison officer was injured after being grazed on the stomach by a bullet.