00:00Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander says the government intends to utilize what he described as the largest labor force
00:08in the nation by deploying convicted inmates sentenced to hard labor to assist with maintaining public spaces.
00:15Speaking during a visit to the National Program for the Upkeep of Public Spaces in Tunapuna on Tuesday, Alexander said
00:22inmates will be assigned to tasks including cleaning communities, cutting grass and maintaining public areas.
00:30While the government works to introduce a replacement for the TPEC program.
00:34We are going to reintroduce where persons who have been charged and convicted by a court and sentenced to hard
00:49labor, we are going to reintroduce those persons who come back home to the streets and come to the clean
00:55-up places.
00:55The minister argued that the move would restore the original purpose of hard labor while also helping inmates prepare for
01:03life after prison.
01:05You know what is hard labor in the jail right now? A man is smoking, a man is on his
01:11phone, internet and all these things. That's not hard labor.
01:15And if someone is smoking on the inside, you can use that process to start to reintegrate himself back into
01:23the public.
01:24Alexander said the arrangement will remain in place until legal matters involving the former CPEC program are resolved and a
01:31new program is introduced.
01:34Until matters are completed in a court of law and the corruption that is associated with that have been dealt
01:43with, then we will reintroduce a new program until such time we are allowing persons to do their job, clean
01:51the community, defy the place again.
01:54The Homeland Security Minister also said maintaining clean public spaces complements the government's wider efforts to improve public safety and
02:03restore confidence in communities.
02:05It's about increasing what you already have in order to maintain. So it's not just that the crime is done
02:13and let's just relax. It's not about that. It's about giving the public that sense of safety and security that
02:19was left, that was moved away from them for nine years and bring it back with purpose and intention.
02:29Asked about the failed Zoso's bill and if and when it will return, Alexander declined to discuss the legislation directly,
02:37but said his anti-crime strategy is being shaped by public feedback.
02:42Anticrime.
02:43Anticrime.
02:44Anticrime.
02:44I want to discuss the Zoso and what I'm saying to you is this. In Tunapunan, the way I have
02:48structured my approach, the show-line of the Zoso, well, as I said before, we are thinking people. We are.
03:00So we often find ways to treat the things. We listen to the public. Not those who mischievous and have
03:07chaos, we not have order. We listen to the members of the public.
03:11We listen to them who are seeing things differently. So we can guide them and we often take ideas from
03:16them.
03:17Alexander did not indicate when the replacement for the CPEP program will be launched, but said the interim measures are
03:24aimed at improving the upkeep of communities while broader reforms are implemented.
03:29Charlotte Kisto, TV6 News.
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