Has the insurgence threat to the country been neutralised? According to Prisons Commissioner Carlos Corraspe, the information he has indicates so, however he notes there are other high-risk prisoners across all the facilities which the Prison Service continues to manage. Rynessa Cutting reports.
00:00It has been 12 days since the transfer of 10 prisoners from the maximum security prison to the Tetron barracks in Chagaramas.
00:08Since then, two drones were said to have been intercepted at that location.
00:12However, as per the information in possession of the prison's commissioner, the situation is under control.
00:19Now that the high-risk inmates have been transferred out of the main prison facilities, would you say that the threat within the prison has been neutralized?
00:27The threat insofar as what gave rise to the SOE, that is the information that we have.
00:33But remember, we have high-risk inmates across all the different facilities.
00:37So we continue to manage that population as best as we could with the recognition that incapacitation means that you are not to be able to cause harm and hurt to the public once you are in prison.
00:47And that is the onerous responsibility of the prison officers of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:52And that is why I do all in my power to have our officers function and operate in the way that the public expects.
00:59Defense Minister Wayne Sturge recently reported that a large television and a quantity of guns were recovered from within the prison.
01:07Both the prison service and the prison officers' association have set the record straight as it pertains to the television.
01:15But there are also conflicting accounts as it pertains to the alleged weapons.
01:20A few days ago, the Minister of Defense, he would have spoken to some concerning fines, including guns within the prisons.
01:26What is the latest on that matter in terms of the investigation?
01:29Well, certainly I do not want to prejudice the minister and his information.
01:34And this is me simply saying that we had reported a single occurrence of a firearm from the prison sometime earlier this year.
01:42That was part of operations, in search operations, and it was detected.
01:49And that is a matter that we have placed in the public space already.
01:54Yes.
01:55Okay, so it wasn't something recent and it was not multiple, is what you're saying?
01:58No, as far as I know, it was a single firearm found at the maximum security prison, which, as I said, was placed in the public domain.
02:06Okay, so could you at all say what is the latest with that investigation and have you all yielded any more concerning fines within the prisons?
02:14Well, the better persons to inquire of that would, of course, be the police, because, of course, that is a matter of a criminal investigation that continues, I'm sure.
02:21The prison's commissioner says he has taken note of negative commentary in the public domain about the service.
02:28And he's vowing to improve public trust and confidence.
02:32And we are doing all that it will take to rid the prison service of persons who will act in a manner to cause harm and hurt to the public, officers who act unlawfully.
02:40But I want to say that the job that we as prison officers do, nobody else in the criminal justice system can do it.
02:47I want always to applaud my officers who stand up to do what is right and act lawfully and to encourage them to continue to do that work.
02:54We will stand side by side with all the arms of the criminal justice system and law enforcement to ensure that public safety is ensured.
03:03Whatever is an issue, we will work on it to improve that, because we can do better and we will do better.
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