RHON­DOR DOWLAT-ROS­TANT

A small ri­ot broke out in the Women’s Prison in Arou­ca yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing news that a prison of­fi­cer had test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the women be­gan chant­i­ng “COVID is re­al, COVID is re­al” and “Stop ad­van­tag­ing us, stop ad­van­tag­ing us.”

Prison sources said the women pris­on­ers fear an out­break at the fa­cil­i­ty and called for an im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion by the Min­istry of Health and T&T Prison Ser­vice au­thor­i­ties.

“A ri­ot broke out in the women’s prison as an of­fi­cer got COVID-19 and there is the be­lief that the au­thor­i­ties are try­ing to keep it un­der low,” a prison source said.

As of yes­ter­day, 52 of­fi­cers and nine pris­on­ers had test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

A few weeks ago, prison of­fi­cers called on the Min­istry of Health to put the prison sys­tem on its pri­or­i­ty list and have of­fi­cers and in­mates vac­ci­nat­ed. This call was re­newed in light of yes­ter­day’s in­ci­dent. Sev­er­al calls have al­so been made by pris­on­ers at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, through their at­tor­neys, to have them vac­ci­nat­ed, as they are will­ing to be vac­ci­nat­ed.

A prison of­fi­cer, who wished not to be named said there could be a domi­no ef­fect of in­fec­tions spread be­yond the walls of the prison.

“Prison of­fi­cers and ad­min­is­tra­tive staff have fam­i­lies to re­turn to. The risks to every­one, giv­en that these per­sons are part of a com­mu­ni­ty, may cre­ate risks of spread be­yond the prison that may eas­i­ly in­volve the com­mu­ni­ty at large,” the of­fi­cer said.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Shamshudeen Mo­hammed con­firmed the in­ci­dent but said the sit­u­a­tion was quick­ly brought un­der con­trol. How­ev­er, he ruled out there be­ing any COVID-19 case in the women’s prison.

“The ri­ot broke out be­cause they didn’t want of­fi­cers to con­duct search­es be­cause search­es are a way that we sani­tise the prison from il­le­gal con­tra­band. But we brought the sit­u­a­tion un­der con­trol with­out force be­ing used,” Mo­hammed said.

“There is no case of COVID-19 in the women’s prison and we are do­ing our part on the wear­ing of the re­quired PPE. Sani­tis­ing of all pris­ons are on­go­ing and we did, in fact, sani­tise the Women’s Prison this morn­ing (Sun­day) so it’s very clean and COVID-19-free.”