00:00The prison system runs 24-7, but according to the Prison Officers Association, officers are not being compensated accordingly.
00:10Currently, the state is owing prison officers around $150 million in overtime.
00:21You have people being owed overtime since 2010, 2011.
00:28Then right now, we are saying the state is getting labor by trick.
00:36That is what we're doing.
00:38The association laments that many officers have passed away without receiving their overtime payments.
00:44And Gordon says life expectancy in the prison service is dismally low.
00:50The mortality age for prison officers is 57 years old, which means, and we are seeing it, you have a
01:00lot of officers not even reaching 55 to receive their pension and gratuity.
01:08That officer you talk about recently was on his last year.
01:16The Sunday before was, they would have cremated Mr. Dookie.
01:22Then Mr. Lewis passed away the Wednesday of that same week.
01:28Last year, we lost 15 officers.
01:31In 2024, we lost 25 officers.
01:38The high-stress environment and poor working conditions are said to be at fault.
01:44The association says to add insult to injury, $400,000 is allocated in the national budget annually to assist officers
01:52with medical expenses.
01:54But they cannot say when last an application was approved.
01:59What we are seeing is that there is an undue delay in our system in getting those requests to the
02:08Pullman and Secretary.
02:10And this is where we are having the issue.
02:13Because as Mr. Dookie pointed out earlier, you cannot tell me a whole year passed, you submit your documents, and
02:22then people say it, and they didn't see it, they didn't see no letter attached.
02:27In the meantime, the association has been covering some of the medical costs.
02:32They are calling on the stage to form a universal group health plan.
02:36Not only for us, but for our brothers and sisters in the other arms of the protective services.
02:44The association is also calling for special NIS provisions for the service.
02:50Officers will have to wait from 55 to 65 years to access their NIS benefit.
02:58Most officers will die, and all they will receive is the 7500 funeral grant.
03:05Correct.
03:06They will not make it to 65 years.
03:08So we wrote the finance minister calling for a meeting to treat with those issues.
03:14The association has not yet received a response.
03:18Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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