Three contracts totalling $87.7 million have been awarded for a security perimeter fence and infrastructural work at the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Arouca, as Government moves to shut down the island prison on Carrera and transfer those prisoners to the MSP.
The work being undertaken will facilitate the move in a few weeks’ time of 230 high-risk prisoners from the Carrera Convict Prison (CCP), situated on the tiny island in the Gulf of Paria between the Bocas and Five Islands, to an upgraded MSP.
Following the move, some prisoners may no longer be housed in concrete cells with wrought iron railings, but be placed in freight containers instead, Minister of Justice Prakash Ramadhar says.
Speaking for the first time since being given the new portfolio in February, Ramadhar said the decision to shut down the CCP was long overdue and construction of the high-security fence, installation of surveillance cameras, guard booths and infrastructural works enclosing an area of approximately 85 acres of land at the MSP were needed to facilitate the move.
The project, Ramadhar said, involved three packages which would be completed by mid-year. The three packages cost $87,742,244.43 overall, inclusive of construction and consultancy costs, Udecott project management fees and contingency fees.
This phase of works involves the following:
• Junior Sammy Contractors Ltd - $45,862,000.
Scope: Construction of the fence, gates, roadway and sidewalks.
• Adams Project Management & Construction Ltd - $27,421,658.
Scope: Construction of all attendant infrastructure (lighting, CCTV cameras, security centre building and guard booths.)
• Consulting Engineers Associates 2005 Ltd - $833,750.
Scope: Contract administrator/FIDIC Engineer.
Udecott has been identified as the approved project manager and the contracts were awarded in 2013.
Another phase will follow this one.
“What has happened, we have already, and it is about complete, to put a high-security perimeter fence so you would have a more open sort of prison. As soon as the fence is finished the move will be made. We expect the wall (fence) to be completed within the month,” Ramadhar said.
“We are going to close Carrera and move all the prisoners soon.”
Containers cells
The MSP, built to house 2,463 prisoners, currently holds over 1,000 inmates.
Half of the convicted inmate population of the CCP, which was built to keep serious criminals as far as possible from human settlement, are serving sentences ranging from ten years or more to life.
T&T has nine prison facilities which house over 4,000 prisoners.
But Ramadhar said shifting the CCP population to the MSP would not cause overcrowding within the prison walls.
“The wall (fence) that we are putting around...we are creating space within the prison. We have looked at the issues of containers. That sounds terrible, but containers are not bad, in the sense, if you know how to design it. So this would house many more people.”
Ramadhar said the idea of the containers was considered during discussions, but had not yet been approved.
“It’s an idea we came up with.”
He said if containers were used to house prisoners, they must be up to humanitarian standards and fully secured.
With more land space available, Ramadhar said, authorities would introduce prisoners to vegetable, root crop, fish and livestock farming.
“It would provide for more agriculture to be done by prisoners.”
He said prisoners at the MSP who have less than two years to serve will be moved to the Eastern Correction Rehabilitation Centre in Santa Rosa.
“It is a lower security level, but you get training and rehabilitation there. We will also try to get jobs for them so when they come out of prison it would be an easier transition for them.”
Built in 1937, the CCP has been faced with operating challenges, Ramadhar said. The entire prison is dependent on sea transportation which is expensive and requires careful logistical planning for the efficient delivery of resources. It costs taxpayers $24,012 every fortnight to transport materials, supplies and fresh water to the CCP. Another issue is the transportation of prisons officers and taking prisoners regularly to the mainland for secondary care and family visits.
Since 1989, the Coast Guard has been providing transportation to and from the CCP, and in some instances there were unavoidable delays in transporting prisoners due to their workload and commitments.
“There is also a cost attached to these transportation delays, since there are high overtime costs for prisons officers awaiting transportation. It is costly to maintain Carrera due to the age of the prison,” Ramadhar said.
In 2012, Ramadhar said, Government had to pay $4 million in overtime. Also $1.7 million was spent on infrastructural upkeep at the prison in the last 42 months, including:
• Main prison
• Subordinate officers’ dormitory
• Infirmary
• Senior staff quarters
• Emergency Response Unit dormitory
Other issues also plague the institution.
“There has been significant erosion on the sea wall around the island and the cost of such repair is yet to be quantified. The cost and inconvenience of maintaining the Carrera Convict Prison operates against the continued use of the Carrera Island as a Prison,” Ramadhar said, adding the State would have to make a determination on the CCP’s future.
In March 2013, then commissioner of prisons Martin Martinez, in a T&T Guardian report, stated that humanitarian considerations were driving the Government to spend $11 million to move high-risk prisoners from CCP to the MSP.
Martinez explained that prisoners on CCP had been serving long sentences, isolated from the rest of society without proper rehabilitation programmes, clustered into cells, and using pails to relieve themselves.
Ramadhar said a pre-trial detention facility, a new remand prison in Arouca, would also be built to accommodate 1,500 prisoners. A design consultant has been identified and the ministry is awaiting the requisite funding before an award can be made by Udecott which is the approved project manager.
Richards: Security issues at MSP
On Friday, president of the Prisons’ Officers Association, Ceron Richards, urged Government not to move inmates of the CCP to the MSP, since the Arouca-based prison was riddled with security issues and not able to accommodate a huge influx of prisoners.
Richards said he hoped before they made the move the association would be invited to tour the MSP, so they could evaluate whether the facility could in fact accommodate the CCP inmates.
“As far as I know the system at Maximum Security Prison is undergoing upgrade. It is not close to where it should be at this point in time.
“I would hope that before any decision is taken to shut down the Carrera prison that the association be first given the opportunity to tour and evaluate what was done.”
He said the MSP was “littered with security problems. I am talking about taking a lot of life-timers, people with long sentences, to place in that facility; we would not support that at all.
“The Maximum Security Prison at this time cannot accommodate those inmates at Carrera. There are issues based on the culture of the inmates, type of inmates and security nature of those inmates. There will be serious security issues at the Maximum Security Prison.”
He said currently there was no ideal location to house the CCP inmates.
“That is why Carrera has to remain open until such a time we can get a suitable location for those inmates.”
Richards said it was not a matter of how many prisoners from the CCP could be accommodated at the MSP, “the issue is whether or not the security apparatus at the Maximum State Prison can handle the types of inmates leaving Carrera to go there.”
The scope of the work at MSP includes
• Approximately 16,500 feet of 18-foot high, welded wire fabric/anti-climb fencing, with razor wire top and bottom, pedestrian and vehicular gates
• Sidewalks around the entire perimeter of approximately 18,800 feet
• Asphalt-paved drive surface and gravel area between double-fenced zones
• A CCTV system allowing complete surveillance and monitoring along the entire perimeter
• A security centre building
• Seven guard booths
• Mechanical, plumbing and sewage infrastructure
• IT/communication support system for the facility
• Exterior lighting along the entire perimeter
• Backup generator capable of supplying full backup power to facility