After last week's discovery of a "highly dangerous criminal network operating from within Trinidad and Tobago's Correctional Facilities", which led to the declaration of a state of emergency, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon, spoke on the state of the country's prisons. Dominic Ramroop has the details.
00:00The records will show that we, the Prison Officers Association, have been sounding this alarm for an extremely long time.
00:12Last Friday's discovery of a dangerous criminal network posing threats to the safety of public officials and the public from within the walls of the country's prisons
00:21comes as no surprise to the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon,
00:27who is not denying the presence of rogue elements in the service, but is adamant that they are being dealt with.
00:34Show me any other agency in Trinidad and Tobago that actively pursues rogue elements.
00:42We do it every single day.
00:45We have no problem with having these people arrested and removed from within our ranks.
00:55The thing is that that is not the only area that needs attention.
01:02But what we have happening is that the prison service has generally been ignored.
01:09Gordon also took the time to highlight the issues the country's prison officers face on a daily basis.
01:15When you have something like lighting, a basic thing, no cameras, no security cameras, locks malfunctioning, no water,
01:27or you're having water issues, people still defecating in buckets, officers still have to engage this environment,
01:34no uniforms, no vehicles.
01:38A batch of mine, I said it to you, passed away at the Golden Grove prison from a heart attack.
01:45We don't have a proper ambulance.
01:48And he believes that it is high time for a brand new prison facility to be built.
01:53If the infrastructure is failing,
01:56How then are we to address these longstanding issues without that much needed support?
02:06One of the things that certainly we need a brand new facility where the infrastructure takes under its arm and being constructed modern correctional infrastructural design.
02:23So the last purpose built, so-called modern facilities, the maximum security prison, which is in dire need of refurbishment.
02:35Gordon says that the Association's plea for more resources is not about playing a blame game,
02:40but it is about putting the people of Trinidad and Tobago first
02:43and allowing prison officers to perform their duties as pertains to corrections.
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