Yvonne Ba­boolal

Hu­man­i­tar­i­an con­sid­er­a­tions are dri­ving the Gov­ern­ment to spend US$1.6 mil­lion (about TT$11 mil­lion) to move high-risk pris­on­ers from the cen­tu­ry-old Car­rera Is­land Prison, dubbed the "Tri­ni Al­ca­traz," to the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) in Arou­ca, Trinidad.In about six months, 300-plus pris­on­ers will be trans­ferred from the tiny is­land in the Gulf of Paria be­tween the Bo­cas Is­lands and the Five Is­lands, re­put­ed­ly sur­round­ed by shark-in­fest­ed wa­ters, to an up­grad­ed MSP.

Car­rera Is­land pris­on­ers are serv­ing long sen­tences and be­ing iso­lat­ed from the rest of the so­ci­ety with­out prop­er re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grammes is in­hu­mane and does noth­ing for their spir­i­tu­al, in­tel­lec­tu­al or so­cial well-be­ing, Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Mar­tin Mar­tinez told the T&T Guardian in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day.The MSP, built to house 2,463 pris­on­ers, now holds over 1,000 in­mates. There's more than enough room for the Car­rera pris­on­ers, but the place needs up­grad­ing, he said.

Mar­tinez said his view was in­te­gral to the de­ci­sion to close down the is­land prison."My views were sought and I was part of the en­tire process," he said.It will not hap­pen un­til the pris­on­ers can be prop­er­ly housed, how­ev­er."Clos­ing down Car­rera is con­tin­gent up­on the pro­vi­sion of ad­e­quate al­ter­na­tive ac­com­mo­da­tion for the 300-plus pris­on­ers and the pris­ons of­fi­cers," Mar­tinez said.

Ap­proval for the up­grade of the MSP, opened in 1998, has al­ready been grant­ed and the work will be done be­fore the new pris­on­ers are brought in."It is cost­ing US$1.6 mil­lion and with the up­grade will be more suit­able to house the Car­rera pris­on­ers. The process should take about six months." Mar­tinez said half of Car­rera's con­vict­ed in­mate pop­u­la­tion are serv­ing sen­tences from ten years and over to life.

"Be­cause of their long sen­tences, you can't have them locked down the whole day. They need pro­grammes, some­thing to give them hope. They should be housed in con­di­tions that speak to the dig­ni­ty of the hu­man be­ing."Mar­tinez added, "Car­rera is an old prison (con­struct­ed in 1877) and was not cus­tom-built for mod­ern cor­rec­tion.

"For years there has been talk of clos­ing it down. We have the will to do it now. Car­rera has out­lived its use­ful­ness. In­mates are clus­tered in cells with no toi­let fa­cil­i­ties. They still use pails."His­to­ri­an Dr Brins­ley Sama­roo said the British con­struct­ed the prison on Car­rera Is­land in 1877 to keep se­ri­ous crim­i­nals as far as pos­si­ble from hu­man set­tle­ment.

"I am in to­tal agree­ment with the move to re­lo­cate them to the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison," he added. "Lone­li­ness can make them more vi­cious. At the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison they can have more vis­its from rel­a­tives and so­cial work­ers."In Ju­ly 2010, Car­rera pris­on­er Andy Downy, in­car­cer­at­ed for steal­ing $100,000 in in­dus­tri­al tools from Petrotrin, swam to the main­land to his free­dom and was re­cap­tured af­ter five months. He re­port­ed­ly went in search of his "love"–An­nie in Colom­bia.

Like Al­ca­traz Is­land off the Cal­i­for­nia coast in the US, closed as a fed­er­al pen­i­ten­tiary in 1963 and made in­to a tourist site, Sama­roo sug­gest­ed Car­rera Is­land should be con­vert­ed in­to a tourist at­trac­tion.

More in­fo

There are 400 re­mand pris­on­ers at the MSP. They were moved there be­cause of over­crowd­ing at the re­mand fa­cil­i­ty at the Gold­en Grove Prison in Arou­ca, Mar­tinez said.They will not be moved to the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC) at San­ta Rosa in Ari­ma, he said."The ECRC was not built for high-risk pris­on­ers. It is for non-vi­o­lent, low-risk pris­on­ers who are about to fin­ish their sen­tences, like pris­on­ers on child main­te­nance charges."

Mar­tinez said the ECRC is fair­ly se­cure, nev­er­the­less, and in very good con­di­tion. "The pris­on­er hous­ing fa­cil­i­ties are very good. There is a func­tion­ing and well-equipped in­fir­mary, a vis­it­ing area and an air­ing yard."What the ECRC does not have is a kitchen and a laun­dry. The prepa­ra­tion of food and laun­dry are done at the MSP."

Jus­tice Min­is­ter Christlyn Moore, who an­nounced the clo­sure of Car­rera on Thurs­day, said there are plans to al­so close down the State Prison–still known as the Roy­al Gaol–on Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain. She said she was dis­turbed by what she saw there.

Mar­tinez said plans to re­lo­cate those pris­on­ers will have to be put on hold."There is a large re­mand pop­u­la­tion at the Port-of-Spain Prison and we have to find ac­com­mo­da­tion for them. There is a small con­vict­ed pop­u­la­tion who can al­ways be re­lo­cat­ed else­where."