00:00 wipe your snotty nose, dry up your tears and come back to work. You are here for the long
00:05 haul. You have colleagues who are on the job, struggling to get a job done by you being
00:11 on continued sick leave and by the association saying it's psychological reasons. If you
00:17 cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
00:20 It's unlikely to be what the prison's officers want to hear from their commissioner. But
00:26 with three weeks having elapsed since the riot at the Port of Spain prison, it appears
00:30 that the prison's commissioner has had enough.
00:33 Instead of the association encouraging hard work and dedication, they are encouraging
00:40 misbehaviour. Both sides were injured in that incident, inmates and officers. How come the
00:46 inmates over that and get on with living their lives in the prison? But my officers crying,
00:53 crying, crying, wipe your snotty nose and come back on the job.
00:57 Commissioner Ramutha says he acknowledges that the job and the facilities do have their
01:02 challenges. But he tells TV6 improvements have been made.
01:08 The conditions have increased 300 times more than when I joined the service 35 years ago.
01:15 When I joined the service, Port of Spain prison was total was 1,100 plus inmates. Now it's
01:23 just about 500. So right here by numbers it has been improved. We have expanded divisions
01:30 to make the facility more spacious. We have moved out bulk of remanded inmates to other
01:37 facilities. One has to be reminded that this is a prison and not a hotel.
01:41 The prison's commissioner is calling on the Prison Officers Association to support the
01:46 prison service.
01:47 I think the greatest enemy to officers right now are the leaders of the Prison Officers
01:52 Association. When you listen to their remarks and so on, it is to destabilise the prison
01:58 service and it's to destabilise the country. And that's rather unfortunate. I'm not saying
02:03 to accept bad conditions, but the way you're ranting and raving on the pavement and so
02:08 on, why don't you resign?
02:11 Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:13 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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