00:00It was just yesterday that the prison's commissioner and prison's executive met with Minister of Homeland Security, Roger Alexander.
00:08We discussed general issues concerning the management of the prison service, issues of resources, issues of infrastructure,
00:17and issue of the general plan and goals of the prison service.
00:21And of course, the minister would have outlined, as far as he could at that time, the government's vision for the prison service as part and parcel of homeland security.
00:32However, less than 24 hours later, they found out that they met with the wrong minister through no fault of theirs.
00:39At the time, that was the information that was conveyed, but I would have seen a gazetted document last night in which the prison service now falls under the new Ministry of Justice, under Minister Devish Maharaj.
00:54As it stands now, we fall under the Ministry of Justice as gazetted, so we'll wait to see what the Minister of Justice is saying in relation to those issues.
01:06The Gazette Notice, dated 3rd May, does in fact include a letter to Devish Maharaj, Minister of Justice, affirming his responsibilities, which include the prison service.
01:18So you all would be moving now to seek a meeting with the Minister of Justice because that other meeting would kind of be null and void?
01:27Well, I don't want to say it's null and void. We would have discussed matters related to the prison service as requested by the Minister of Homeland Security.
01:38And upon the request by the Minister, because of course the Minister will have his schedule, I anticipate that he would reach out to the prison service and me as the acting commissioner for the time being.
01:49And we would have further discussions among the priority matters discussed was the upcoming media budget review and releases for the prison service.
01:59And we would have identified the key areas where we felt that the media review should condition in terms of further resources.
02:08So we are looking at, I can say, repairs to prison vehicles and increasing the allocation there.
02:14The commissioner could not give a definitive figure, but noted that, as a whole, the service requires hundreds of millions of dollars to operate.
02:24The prison service is also gearing up to recruit new officers, with the exam set for May 31st.
02:31How many officers are you all hoping to recruit?
02:34Well, it goes by the ability because, of course, we have to pay the persons.
02:39So even though you have vacancies and persons are successful, we create a merit list.
02:45And as the government is able to fund the salaries, we would indicate.
02:51So normally a batch would be anywhere between 200 and 250 persons.
02:56Roughly 10,000 applicants qualified to write the exams.
03:00That would have been those who are successful.
03:02But, of course, more persons would have applied who would not have been successful.
03:06So the number would have been larger than 10,000.
03:08So we are satisfied that the interest is still there because, at the end of the day, one, it is a government job.
03:15There is security of tenure.
03:17And, of course, the contribution that we make to national security is unheralded,
03:22though it is sometimes done in silence and behind prison walls.
03:26Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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