OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to come to clean whether a con­tract was award­ed to in­stall a new alarm sys­tem at the Max­i­mum State Prison in Arou­ca.

The as­so­ci­a­tion told the Trinidad Guardian that no alarm sys­tem leaves the lives of of­fi­cers and in­mates at risk.

Just two weeks ago, the As­so­ci­a­tion said there was a stab­bing at the MSP in Arou­ca and prison of­fi­cers were faced with the chal­lenge to alert oth­er of­fi­cers about the in­ci­dent.

The as­so­ci­a­tion’s pres­i­dent, Ceron Richards, told Guardian Me­dia ,”It was on­ly last week it was brought to my at­ten­tion that no such con­tract ex­ists, so we are call­ing on the min­is­ter to clear the air. We don’t know who is telling the truth the min­is­ter is say­ing there is a con­tract and oth­er sources at his very min­istry are say­ing that there is no con­tract.”

Since 2012, the as­so­ci­a­tion has been com­plain­ing that the sys­tem is cru­cial at the prison and to date, it has not been im­ple­ment­ed by the Gov­ern­ment.

Richards said, “There is no prison any­where in the world min­i­mum-max­i­mum or at what­ev­er lev­el does not have an alarm sys­tem save and ex­cept Trinidad and To­ba­go save and ex­cept the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in Gold­en Grove in Trinidad and To­ba­go”.

The MSP pop­u­la­tion is 2000 pris­on­ers.

He claimed that there is a plan by the Gov­ern­ment to make the ser­vice re­dun­dant and pos­si­bly is­sue con­tracts to oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions to do the jobs of prison of­fi­cers.

Richards said, “the Gov­ern­ment knows prison of­fi­cers would not just walk off the job so that is what they are play­ing on whether or not they have an alarm sys­tem they will come to work be­cause they love their coun­try that is such a wicked sit­u­a­tion, a wicked act by the Gov­ern­ment to ill-treat and abuse per­sons who come to work every day to ad­vance the in­ter­est of the State.”