If prison officers decide to walk off the job and leave some of the country’s most notorious criminals unguarded, police will step in to protect citizens.
In response to the Prison Officers’ Association’s (POA) threat yesterday to leave the job, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said his charges were fully prepared for that eventuality.
Emotions were running high yesterday when POA president Ceron Richards issued the warning to the State during a press conference in Arouca, hours after the murder of prison officer Darren Francis in New Grant.
Francis was the second prison officer murdered and the third targetted by the criminal element in recent times.
However, Griffith said that decisions and comments should not be made while angry, as it may not be the best.
“I think the comments being made of asking prison officers to walk out on their jobs, as much as this is a very traumatic period for the prison service, making emotional decisions such as that do not help the situation and it certainly does not help the citizens of this country,” Griffith said.
“What we need is to not make decisions and comments when we are angry and for us to be able to work together as a team within the different arms of national security to rectify the problem and not just drop tools. Anyone who drops tools like that, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service is fully prepared to get in there and to do the job to protect the citizens of this country.”
While he empathised with the prison officers, he said Richards should not throw blame at the Police Service or the state but instead look in the mirror and realise it was time to clean his house.
He said on becoming commissioner, he knew that in order for the service to excel rogue elements had to be weeded out.
“The country has seen that on a regular basis, police officers are now being arrested left, right and centre if any of them commit any action in contrast to their requirements. I ask Mr Richards to start looking in the mirror and do the same rather than blame everyone else.”
He said while he would not label the prison service as corrupt, there have been reports of prison officers aiding prisoners with tools, some of which are used to orchestrate crimes from behind the prison walls.
Griffith asked Richards what information he had ever given to any police commissioner pointing to any prison officer who, for years, may have been involved in aiding and abetting criminals by smuggling hand grenades, drugs and phones.
“I have just assisted the Commissioner of Prisons with intelligence about one prisoner acquiring three cell phones in the space of 24 hours. As soon as you seize a phone from him another is given. That is not the Police Service that caused that, that is not the State that caused that, so Mr Richards should really look in the mirror rather than being very emotional at this disturbing time.”
He said the POA’s lobby for firearms for all officers was also a knee-jerk approach, adding his remedy was to stop the drugs and the phones from getting into prisoners’ hands since this is what allows them to order hits.
Griffith believes the Police service can also do more to help the prison service, but he said any action they take must be authorised by the Commissioner of Prisons.
“There is an element of highly trained police officers in the prison, but as I said I am not in charge of the operations within the prison. I can only do so much based on the request by the Commissioner of Prisons.”