In the last 28 years, 22 prison officers have lost their lives to gunmen. Two senior prison officers of the rank of superintendent have brutally murdered outside their homes in the past three years, with Wayne Jackson being the latest victim on Tuesday night.
It’s a situation which Prisons Commissioner Gerard Wilson admits to being concerned about.
The killings of prison officers have spanned almost every administration in this country, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), People’s National Movement, United National Congress, People’s Partnership and the current PNM government led by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
In this period, the Prisons Officers’ Association has pleaded constantly for mechanisms to protect the lives of officers who they contend are under constant threat from the inmates under their charge.
POA secretary Gerard Gordon lamented that “nothing has been implemented” because in his view, “no one cares about Prison Officers and their families.
Just what have they been asking for?
Gordon said a key element is legislation which will send a signal to the criminal element that “the government, the state is serious about the issue of attacks on officers of the security forces.”
He said the murders being perpetrated “are not against the prison officers alone, it is a complete disregard for the authorities and the state needs to respond in an extremely open and aggressive manner to stymie the thought of wanting to kill a law enforcement official in Trinidad and Tobago. The Government needs to be strong and legislate and not just talk.”
According to Gordon, the protection of prison officers “is interwoven with the management of the justice system, we are soft targets.”
He said the failure of the judiciary to deal with cases in a timely manner adds to the pressures behind prison walls.
“The judiciary dragging their belly, a complete failed organisation the judiciary, they comfortable that men locked up seven and eight years and I am not talking about guilt or innocence because we can’t even get to that point,” Gordon said.
He said when prisoners go to court and their matters are adjourned without being heard “they come back with an attitude and rightfully so, they come back vex and frustrated.”
Some inmates, he said, commit suicide because of the delay in their matters and prison officers often have to be “mother, father, tanty, nennen, priest and doctor, we have to be everything and what do we get?”
Apart from the legislation, he said they had been begging for housing. But he lamented that what has happened is that officers are now allocated homes in HDC developments where ex-prisoners also reside.
“There is a single female prison officer right now, she living between two ex-prisoners,” he said.
He said when they questioned where officers are given homes “we hearing cock and bull stories about oh they does mix it because it gives the public a sense of safety, so even when I on my private time you putting me in a housing development for the safety of the public. What about my safety, what about the safety of my family?” Gordon asked.
He said they had written to Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis shortly after she assumed office asking for a meeting to discuss a proposal hey had using members’ money to provide housing in a private-public partnership with the state but had received no response. Requests for firearms, he said, had also been met with negativity.
“They saying don’t give prison officers guns, but what is the alternative, they not providing an alternative.”
Commissioner Wilson, who is on vacation, said he was saddened the life of yet another colleague had been so brutally snuffed out.
Superintendent Jackson was shot 32 times in his head, back and other parts of his body as he exited his car outside his Malabar home on Tuesday night.
Wilson said Wilson was a “no-nonsense type of person.”
Jackson was a superintendent and died in similar circumstances to Superintendent David Millette, who was shot and killed outside his Morvant Home in November 2015.
Wilson said, “What has been trending is that if something happens on a station they target the superintendent because they would have felt that the superintendent is the one who makes the rules and the policies.”
He said he had “heard through the grapevine that they prefer to go now at senior people to send a message.”
He is also of the view that legislation was “critical to curbing the behaviours of people who attack prison officers.”
Shortly after assuming office, Wilson set up a High-Risk Unit which he said is “intelligence based.”
The unit gathers information and Wilson said “a lot of times we pass it on to the police, so anytime we get any idea of a threat to an officer we contact the police.”
As to the request by prison officers for guns, he said, “We have to consider the safety of officers, in some circumstances it works.”
He observed that Jackson had his firearm on him when he was killed.
“It just goes to show you have the unguarded moment. But what officers feel is that having weapons give them a fighting chance and you can’t blame anybody who feels that way,” Wilson said.
PRISON OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LAST 28 YEARS
April 7, 1990: Jaichan Goolcharan, 42, killed by an inmate while on duty.
August 14, 1993: Prisons Commissioner Michael Hercules, 58, shot and killed in Barataria.
February 25, 1998: Junior Holder, 51, killed in Chaguaramas.
December 12, 2001: Atwell Sandy, 32, shot dead in Cascade.
May 4, 2003: Winston Sandy, 35, shot dead in Laventille.
March 17, 2005: Anslem Paul, 49, shot dead in Laventille.
June 18, 2008: Anim Joseph, 31, shot dead in St Joseph.
November 7, 2009: Ian Seegobin, 35, shot and killed in Arouca.
January 23, 2010: Nataki Halloway, 32, strangled in Gasparillo.
March 28, 2010: Bernard Thomas, 36, shot dead in Toco.
June 10, 2010: Eric Simmons 53, shot dead in Laventille.
July 6, 2010: Marvin Diaz, 35, shot dead in Gasparillo.
August 21, 2010: Reynard Parris, 21, dies at EWMSC after being shot in Malabar.
November 7, 2013: Andy Rogers, 42, shot dead in Arima.
June 15, 2014: Dominic Bernard, 37, stabbed to death in Point-a-Pierre.
July 17, 2015: Andell Primus, 27, shot and killed in Morvant.
November 2, 2015: Superintendent of Prisons David Millette, 50, shot and killed in Morvant.
March 2, 2016: Fitzelbert Victor, 32, shot and killed by a man who jumped the wall to his Prizgar Lands, Laventille home.
October 8, 2017: Richard Sandy shot dead at a bar in South Trinidad.
October 26, 2017: Glenford Gardner killed at Sea Trace, Bagatelle, Diego Martin.
January 28, 2018: Devindra Boodooram shot and killed while sitting in his vehicle outside of St Mary’s College.
October 2, 2018: Prison Supt Wayne Jackson, 50, shot and killed outside his home in Malabar, Arima.