RHON­DOR DOWLAT-ROS­TANT

Two ma­jor achieve­ments were re­vealed in the T&T Pris­ons Ser­vice on Fri­day with the re­nam­ing of Build­ing 13 at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison to ho­n­our the slain prison of­fi­cer Wayne Jack­son, and the un­veil­ing of the Com­mis­sion­ers' Wall at the Prison's Train­ing Col­lege.

On Fri­day, the Com­mis­sion­ers' Wall was un­veiled at the Pris­ons Train­ing Col­lege, in a brief cer­e­mo­ny host­ed by new­ly con­firmed Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Den­nis Pul­chan.

The Com­mis­sion­ers' Wall is in­tend­ed to in­duct con­firmed Com­mis­sion­ers of Pris­ons, Deputy Com­mis­sion­ers of Pris­ons and As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­ers of Pris­ons, high­light­ing the in­di­vid­u­als who have pi­lot­ed the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice.

A to­tal of 40 pho­tographs were un­veiled dis­play­ing in­di­vid­u­als from 1947 to the present, and pho­tographs will be added up­on re­tire­ment of the Heads, in­di­cat­ing their rank and tenure of ser­vice.

Com­mis­sion­er Pul­chan said that he was de­light­ed with the ini­tia­tive to pre­serve the his­to­ry of the in­di­vid­u­als who pi­lot­ed the Ser­vice, "as they can serve as vis­i­ble in­spi­ra­tions with rich his­tor­i­cal back­grounds, to per­sons en­ter­ing the Pris­ons Train­ing Col­lege seek­ing a ca­reer."

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice al­so ad­vised that Build­ing 13 has been re­named the Wayne Jack­son Build­ing, in ho­n­our of Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Wayne Jack­son, who was slain in 2018.

The choice to re­name the build­ing came fol­low­ing the Prison Ex­ec­u­tive's de­ci­sion to re-pur­pose the build­ing to re­flect Jack­son's be­liefs and vi­sions rel­a­tive to the fair and hu­mane treat­ment of of­fend­ers.

Com­mis­sion­er Pul­chan hailed Jack­son as a hero and an in­spi­ra­tion to all.

“Wayne Jack­son’s lega­cy of be­ing re­silient, fair and just in his ac­tions must al­ways be re­mem­bered,” the Prison Ser­vice boss stat­ed.

Present at the build­ing’s recom­mis­sion­ing were mem­bers of the Prison Ex­ec­u­tive, se­nior of­fi­cials from the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison and Jack­son' s wid­ow, Cheryl Jack­son, who was giv­en the ho­n­our of cut­ting the rib­bon dur­ing the brief cer­e­mo­ny.

The slay­ing of Wayne Jack­son

On Oc­to­ber 1st, 2018, 50-year-old Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent of Pris­ons Wayne Jack­son, who was as­signed the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, was shot re­peat­ed­ly as he ar­rived at his home in Mal­abar, short­ly af­ter 6:30 pm.

Jack­son served for over 30 years in the T&T Pris­ons Ser­vice and there was an out­pour­ing of grief and de­mand for jus­tice on so­cial me­dia as news spread of his killing.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Jack­son had just pulled up in his dri­ve­way when two gun­men am­bushed him and shot him dead. He lived a stone's throw away from the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um.

A se­nior prison of­fi­cer, who spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty in 2018, said Jack­son was not well ap­pre­ci­at­ed among the prison pop­u­la­tion.

Asked why, the of­fi­cer replied at the time:

"Well...you know at the MSP is a very hard and tough prison and he was a no-non­sense kind of of­fi­cer...you know how things are."

How­ev­er, an­oth­er pris­ons source, who al­so wished not to be iden­ti­fied, said it is be­lieved that Jack­son was killed fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent that tran­spired over that week­end dur­ing a sport­ing event that took place in the gym area at MSP.

The source claimed that there was a fut­sal game in the gym area and ap­par­ent­ly there was a con­fronta­tion with Jack­son and rel­a­tives of in­mates.