Over the next three days about 400 more prisoners will be transferred from the Golden Grove Remand Yard Prison to the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Arouca, bringing the total to be transferred there to 500 by the end of the process.
The move has been forced on the Prisons Service due to overcrowding at the prison, which is now posing a serious security problem for prisons officers, president of the Prisons Officers Association Ceron Richards confirmed yesterday. The relocation of the prisoners started over the weekend.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Richards assured that the prisoners who were being relocated would be carefully placed according to their gang affiliation so as to prevent any outbreak of violence from members of rival gangs. However, a prisons officer, who wished not to be identified, said on Saturday both Muslims and Rasta City gang member prisoners were placed in Building One at the MSP, and said that could stir a war among them if they were not separated as quickly as possible.
But Richards assured yesterday that the separation would take place.“We are trying our best to separate and maintain that. We are putting all the prisoners together according to the gangs they belong in,” he said. Richards explained that the relocation exercise was one of three things the Prisons Officers Association (POA) had demanded to ensure better security at the Remand Yard.“Reducing the number of prisoners at the Remand Yard from 1,100 to about 800 will be more manageable for the officers. Secondly, we have called for the sanitisation of the prison for it to be properly searched and this was carried out only by prisons officers.
“Thirdly, we have called for an increase in staffing at the Remand facility. I will be between both prisons to make sure that everything goes well and MSP gets the sufficient staff needed to man the situation,” Richards said. Richards said while at the prison on Saturday he got the chance to interview several prisoners and was shocked when he was told that some of them were waiting as much as 16 years for their matters to be called and heard in the High Courts.
“Some of them waiting ten, eight years. For Magistrates’ Court, some waiting over six years. This tells me that something is seriously wrong in the Judiciary system,” Richards said. He again reiterated his call for the immediate resignation of the Chief Justice Ivor Archie over the tardiness of the justice system.“We are not hearing a single statement from the Chief Justice and the Prisons Officers Association will now be turning its guns on the Office of the Chief Justice and the administration of Justice. We are in a poor state. This is atrocious,” Richards said.
He added that because of the failure of the Judiciary the backlog in cases was causing unnecessary overcrowding in the prisons, frustration and undue tension. On Saturday over 100 prisoners were relocated to the MSP in an exercise that lasted for about six hours. No prisoners were relocated yesterday but the exercise is expected to continue today. On June 16 and 17 during two consecutive raids, several inmates were allegedly beaten and about five prisons officers were allegedly attacked.
Efforts to contact Commissioner of Prisons Sterling Stewart for comment yesterday were unsuccessful as calls to his cellphone went to voicemail.