Richard Lord

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar last night con­firmed crim­i­nals were us­ing il­le­gal cell­phones in the na­tion's pris­ons to co-or­di­nate mur­ders and oth­er crim­i­nal acts across the coun­try.Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that was con­firmed by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil af­ter in­ves­ti­ga­tions were con­duct­ed in­to the claim, which was first raised by for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­tin Joseph in the Sen­ate al­most five years ago.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was speak­ing at the UNC's Mon­day Night Fo­rum in Gas­par­il­lo. She said the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment was strong and sol­id as a rock.She said as the Gov­ern­ment neared its third an­niver­sary she was not about to en­gage in old talk. The time for talk was over and it was now time for ac­tion, she added.Per­sad Bisses­sar told par­ty faith­fuls about "a new" crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tive to be tak­en against the il­le­gal use of cell­phones by crim­i­nals in jail to com­mit fur­ther crime.

"You would think when the courts put the crim­i­nals be­hind bars that would end the prob­lem. But far from it," she said.She re­called a con­ver­sa­tion she had with a man who told her "he got a phone call and af­ter ten min­utes in­to the con­ver­sa­tion he re­alised he was speak­ing with a man who was in Gold­en Grove Prison on a gun-re­lat­ed charge, who was telling him to send him a $20 phone card."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it was not the first time she heard such claims so the mat­ter was re­searched.She said the crim­i­nals were "con­tin­u­ing to run their or­gan­i­sa­tions from in­side the jail by ob­struct­ing po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions and "call­ing shots on wit­ness­es, as the crim­i­nals like to say. So we re­searched the prob­lem and found a so­lu­tion and are tak­ing ac­tion."

She added: "As head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil I can tell you, here tonight, that il­le­gal cell­phones in pris­ons are among one of the largest pub­lic-safe­ty risks fac­ing us to­day and I, as Prime Min­is­ter, will put them out of busi­ness. The cell­phone busi­ness in pris­ons will end. "Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil "has moved to im­ple­ment mo­bile phone sig­nal jam­mers. This tech­nol­o­gy can find phones and block calls as well as text mes­sages from un­ap­proved num­bers with­in our pris­ons. We will cut them off."

She said: "The time for talk is over and that in­cludes the crim­i­nals be­hind bars. "

Ch­agua­nas West is­sue

Deal­ing with the Ch­agua­nas West is­sue, where a by-elec­tion is to be called short­ly, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she want­ed to set the records straight.She said every mem­ber of the UNC has a right to seek the nom­i­na­tion for the by-elec­tion in the con­stituen­cy."So we will fol­low the rules and we will let the screen­ing com­mit­tee of our par­ty de­ter­mine who the can­di­date will be. "

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said every mem­ber, in­clud­ing the po­lit­i­cal leader, must fol­low the rules.She added: "No one mem­ber is big­ger or more im­por­tant than the par­ty. The by-elec­tion is not an is­sue tonight be­cause the Speak­er is yet to de­clare the seat va­cant al­though the MP had re­signed on April 26.""Let us not get ahead of our­selves. When the Speak­er de­clares the seat va­cant our na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive will meet and work out the de­tails and I will an­nounce a date for that elec­tion."

She said the PP re­mained strong and unit­ed."So, don't be trou­bled about Ch­agua­nas West. Don't be trou­bled about your par­ty.Your par­ty is in good hands," she added.