The government is making efforts to acquire the Santa Rosa property where the Eastern Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre (ECRC) is located. National Security Minister John Sandy said so yesterday while speaking with reporters at the T&T Prison Service Recreational Sports and Cultural Club's 71st annual sports and family day.
Earlier this year, Sandy, speaking in the Senate, said the property was owned by Wala Wala Ltd and agreed to rent it for a period of six months, commencing September 1, 2011, at a monthly cost of $850,000 plus VAT. Yesterday, he said: "Efforts are being made to acquire the facility so that we can utilise it to spread our inmates out because as you are aware, we are overcrowded at Golden Grove and at Frederick Street in Port-of-Spain."
He said prisoners were currently detained at the ECRC. Sandy did not give an estimated cost for acquiring the property. "Everything is expensive but it's worth it," he said. Meanwhile, Commissioner of Prisons Martin Martinez said there were 117 inmates on Friday and the facility was configured to hold 496.
Martinez said: "We cannot carry the total to 400 or so because of logistics issues. "There is no kitchen facility, no laundry, no classroom, et cetera." The ECRC was set up to detain inmates during the state of emergency last year.