00:00President of the Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon, tells the TV6 Morning Edition
00:05it is the first time in the association's history that members feel this disillusioned and neglected.
00:13We need to be moved from that essential services division.
00:18Prison officers are simply one step above slaves when you look at how it is constructed.
00:26He says, chronic staff shortages, limited equipment, and inadequate resources continue to strain the prison system.
00:35This might word that new officers are coming on board.
00:38Gordon questions whether those recruits should be properly prepared to manage an already volatile environment.
00:45I hear they say 500. They want to bring 500 officers, train 500 officers.
00:50That is 500 people who don't know the prison.
00:54There is 500 people with no experience.
00:57There is 500 people who don't have no street smarts.
01:01He also raises alarm over conditions at the maximum security prison,
01:05which he says is now housing large numbers of remand inmates, although it was never designed for that purpose.
01:12According to Gordon, there is inadequate lighting, limited ventilation, inconsistent water supply, and extreme heat.
01:20Conditions affecting both the inmates and the officers.
01:24I am not talking politics.
01:26The state, no matter who is there, does not seem to understand that if we continue to have this top
01:41-down approach
01:43to managing the prison service, it is going to collapse.
01:50And when it does, it may be too late to bring it back with any sense of alacrity.
02:00Meanwhile, General Secretary Lester Logie says the wider protective services operates in silos,
02:07with little consultation with prison officers on intelligence gathering.
02:11He argues that officers on the ground understand inmate language
02:16and coded references that other agencies may misinterpret during operations.
02:21Up and down.
02:23That is a popular slang in the prison.
02:25You hear in that world thinking it's some homosexual thing.
02:28But it's marijuana and cigarette they're talking about, the inmate.
02:32But if you don't know, you will apply it to something else.
02:35So if the prison officers are being left out of the intelligence gathering,
02:43you can't solve crime with that.
02:45Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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