Joshua Seemu­n­gal

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ist

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

De­spite years of promis­es and more than $200 mil­lion in bud­get al­lo­ca­tions, the State has com­plet­ed just one of 22 ma­jor prison re­form projects since 2020.

Be­tween 2020 and 2025, amid grow­ing pub­lic pres­sure and a crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem in cri­sis, the PNM Gov­ern­ment an­nounced sev­er­al plans to mod­ernise the na­tion’s pris­ons.

“We will im­prove the prison fa­cil­i­ties and in­tro­duce new pro­grammes to im­prove lit­er­a­cy, train­ing, and ed­u­ca­tion of in­car­cer­at­ed in­di­vid­u­als,” for­mer Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said dur­ing his 2021 Bud­get speech.

But five years on, a Guardian Me­dia in­ves­ti­ga­tion has found that 95 per cent of those 22 projects re­main in­com­plete or on­ly par­tial­ly com­plet­ed, based on da­ta from Prison Ser­vice sources.

Of the to­tal:

• ↓17 projects (77 per cent) were not com­plet­ed, stalled, or nev­er start­ed

• ↓Four projects (18 per cent) were par­tial­ly com­plet­ed or on­go­ing

• ↓Just one project (five per cent) was ful­ly com­plet­ed

Now, with the State of Emer­gency (SoE) height­en­ing con­cern over con­di­tions in­side the na­tion’s pris­ons, Guardian Me­dia’s In­ves­tiga­tive Desk takes a clos­er look at what has—and hasn’t—been done.

Ac­cord­ing to the pres­i­dent of the Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion, Ger­ard Gor­don, the re­al­i­ty is stark: the Prison Ser­vice is not a pri­or­i­ty for the State. And that is woe­ful­ly un­for­tu­nate, he added.

“Fail­ing in­fra­struc­ture, no tools, no equip­ment, not even uni­forms be­ing a pri­or­i­ty item. Well, don’t even talk about ve­hi­cles, that too re­mains a very sore is­sue,” he said.

“There was a time when the prison ac­tu­al­ly used to (do ad­di­tion­al projects), be­cause we would have built the women’s prison. We would have done ren­o­va­tions of the dor­mi­to­ries. A lot of in­fra­struc­tur­al work was done by the prison us­ing prison labour and of­fi­cer ex­per­tise. I be­lieve that saw us re­alise great sav­ings.

“With­in the last num­ber of years, we saw this thing of want­i­ng to use con­trac­tors, and well, I don’t need to tell you how that goes. What it says to us is that more than the Gov­ern­ment of the day hav­ing to deal with lim­it­ed re­sources, notwith­stand­ing those chal­lenges, the Prison Ser­vice is not a pri­or­i­ty for the State, and that is woe­ful­ly un­for­tu­nate.”

Of all the pro­posed up­grades, the most pub­licly dis­cussed have been the in­stal­la­tion of CCTV cam­eras and the in­tro­duc­tion of cell­phone jam­mers.

In Ju­ly 2015, un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment, then-Jus­tice Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har an­nounced he had au­tho­rised an ad­di­tion­al $12 mil­lion to in­stall video sur­veil­lance across near­ly every part of the prison sys­tem.

“We had de­liv­ery of the first batch of hand­held scan­ners and grab­bers for deal­ing with the prob­lems of the il­le­gal use of cell­phones with­in the pris­ons, and in the next sev­er­al weeks, we shall see the de­liv­ery of many more. We had al­ready ap­proved a small­er num­ber of cam­eras in the past, but we have ex­pand­ed it now, and it will be a com­plete sys­tem that mon­i­tors all the cam­eras in one cen­tralised lo­ca­tion, and it will al­so fa­cil­i­tate con­nec­tion with the NOC so that they too will have vi­sion with­in the pris­ons. From what the ex­perts have told us, it will be able to cov­er all the pris­ons,” he said at a post-Cab­i­net press brief­ing.

Those promis­es were not kept, and the PP ex­it­ed of­fice, re­placed by Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s PNM.

In June 2022, for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds in­spect­ed what was de­scribed as a “new and tech­no­log­i­cal­ly-en­hanced CCTV sys­tem” at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison.

“Min­is­ter Hinds and Com­mis­sion­er (De­op­er­sad) Ra­moutar dis­cussed con­tin­ued en­hance­ment of sur­veil­lance in­fra­struc­ture with­in the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, as well as on­go­ing ef­forts to im­ple­ment fur­ther up­grades at the prison fa­cil­i­ties,” a press re­lease stat­ed.

How­ev­er, three years lat­er, ac­cord­ing to Prison Ser­vice sources, a ful­ly func­tion­al CCTV sys­tem is still not in place across all fa­cil­i­ties.

In Ju­ly 2022, a group of prison of­fi­cers pub­licly called for Hinds to be re­moved, cit­ing his fail­ure to pro­vide ad­e­quate re­sources and im­prove of­fi­cer safe­ty.

In re­sponse, Hinds is­sued a re­lease stat­ing that he had made progress on sev­er­al is­sues.

He list­ed the in­stal­la­tion of a new alarm sys­tem at MSP, the in­stal­la­tion of sur­veil­lance cam­eras on a phased ba­sis at MSP, the re­fur­bish­ment of MSP’s of­fi­cer dor­mi­to­ries, re­me­di­al and struc­tur­al work at Gold­en Grove dor­mi­to­ries, and ten­der­ing for a perime­ter fence at Gold­en Grove.

In mid-2023, ac­cord­ing to Hinds, cell­phone jam­mers were in­tro­duced at pris­ons.

In re­sponse, the Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion wrote to Hinds say­ing that mem­bers’ lives were at risk be­cause of the use of cell­phone jam­mers.

In ear­ly 2024, Hinds re­port­ed a drop in il­le­gal cell­phone us­age.

“At times, these search­es are con­duct­ed with the as­sis­tance of oth­er law en­force­ment agen­cies. For the year end­ing 2023, there were 411 cell­phones con­fis­cat­ed. This con­trasts with pre­vi­ous years when the num­bers were in the thou­sands. This cell­phone prob­lem isn’t con­fined to T&T, it ex­ists every­where in the world—it’s a re­al phe­nom­e­non and prob­lem,” he said.

In de­fend­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro said a ma­jor threat stemmed from in­side the pris­ons, where com­pro­mised in­sid­ers were traf­fick­ing mo­bile phones and en­abling en­crypt­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween in­mates and out­side op­er­a­tives.

The Prison Ser­vice has im­ple­ment­ed sev­er­al re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive pro­grammes over the last five years, in­clud­ing the Re­ha­bil­i­tat­ing In­mates Through Train­ing and Re­train­ing pro­gramme, the One Book One Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive Com­mu­ni­ty Project, as well as the Prison Youth Club pro­gramme.

Com­plet­ed Projects–1

1) The Elec­tron­ic Mon­i­tor­ing Pro­gramme – In fis­cal 2024, the Gov­ern­ment en­tered in­to a five-year con­tract with Amal­ga­mat­ed Se­cu­ri­ty for the up­grade, ex­pan­sion and re­place­ment of the elec­tron­ic mon­i­tor­ing so­lu­tion for of­fend­er track­ing.

“A mo­bil­i­sa­tion fee of 30 per cent pay­ment and a sec­ond in­stal­ment of 70 per cent was made for the sup­ply and in­stal­la­tion of equip­ment. The ex­ten­sion of the Ser­vice Lev­el Agree­ment, se­mi-an­nu­al pay­ments for years one and two were made, to­talling $3.1 mil­lion,” the 2024 Bud­get doc­u­ments stat­ed.

The Elec­tron­ic Mon­i­tor­ing Unit was set up to track of­fend­ers on a con­tin­u­ous ba­sis through the use of an­kle bracelets.

In­com­plete, Stalled or Un­start­ed Projects–17

1) Con­struc­tion of a Girls’ Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre on the com­pound of the Youth Trans­for­ma­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre.

2) In­stal­la­tion of CCTV sys­tem at MSP and all oth­er pris­ons.

3) Re­con­struc­tion of Ra­tion Room at Gold­en Grove Prison.

4) Con­struc­tion of Video Con­fer­enc­ing Cen­tre at Gold­en Grove, Arou­ca.

5) Con­struc­tion of a se­cu­ri­ty perime­ter fence at the Gold­en Grove Prison.

6) Con­struc­tion of a new sew­er plant at the Pris­ons Train­ing Col­lege.

7) In­stal­la­tion of a new alarm sys­tem at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison Com­plex.

8) In­stal­la­tion of a de­sali­na­tion plant to pro­vide potable wa­ter for the Car­rera Con­vict Prison.

9) Re­pur­pos­ing of the nurs­ery build­ing in­to a Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dence/Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre to ac­com­mo­date fe­male of­fend­ers who are com­mit­ted in­to the cus­tody of the State by the courts.

10) Con­struc­tion of a Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre for Girls at YTC.

11) The con­struc­tion of a cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ty in Hope, To­ba­go.

12) Up­grade and im­prove­ment of the dor­mi­to­ries at the Youth Trans­for­ma­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre.

13) The in­stal­la­tion of a CCTV sys­tem at the Youth Train­ing Cen­tre (YTC) and the Port of Spain Prison.

14) The con­struc­tion of a Spe­cial Court on the com­pound of MSP.

15) The con­struc­tion of a Pro­gramme’s Build­ing at the Gold­en Grove, Re­mand Prison, North Air­ing Yard.

16) The con­struc­tion of a do­mes­tic wa­ter tank at MSP.

17) Roof ren­o­va­tion at the store room at Gold­en Grove.

On­go­ing Projects–4

1) Up­grade of the Re­mand Yard Prison, Gold­en Grove.

2) Up­grade of the in­fra­struc­tur­al sys­tems at Re­mand Yard Pris­ons– Com­plet­ed at Gold­en Grove Re­mand, but not at oth­er re­mand fa­cil­i­ties.

3) Up­grade of plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tems at the Re­mand Yard Prison at Gold­en Grove.

4) Up­grade of the plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tem at the Re­mand Yard Prison.

Funds/Al­lo­ca­tions Com­mit­ted to the 22 Projects:

2020

$70 mil­lion spent on the fol­low­ing projects/pro­grammes:

1) $2.3 mil­lion for im­prove­ment works to prison build­ings at Gold­en Grove Prison. Re­con­struc­tion of Prison’s Ra­tion Room de­scribed as 68 per cent com­plete.

2) In­fra­struc­ture and phys­i­cal works were com­plet­ed in the de­sign and in­stal­la­tion of a new alarm sys­tem.

3) In­stal­la­tion works for elec­tri­cal up­grade.

4) $0.3 mil­lion for the pur­chase and in­stal­la­tion of fire pumps at MSP.

5) Con­struc­tion of the MSP perime­ter fence.

* $1 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed for the pro­cure­ment and award of pre­lim­i­nary and fi­nal de­sign ser­vices and cost es­ti­mates of the new prison in Hope, To­ba­go.

* $0.7 mil­lion for the ac­qui­si­tion of CCTV sur­veil­lance–project de­scribed as 48 per cent com­plete.

2021

$49.7 mil­lion for:

1) Re­con­struc­tion of a ra­tion room and con­struc­tion of a se­cu­ri­ty perime­ter fence at the Gold­en Grove Prison.

2) Con­struc­tion of a new sew­er plant at the Pris­ons Train­ing Col­lege.

3) In­stal­la­tion of a new alarm sys­tem at the MSP.

4) In­stal­la­tion of a CCTV mas­ter sys­tem at MSP.

5) In­stal­la­tion of a de­sali­na­tion plant to pro­vide potable wa­ter for Car­rera.

6) Up­grade of the plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tem at the Re­mand Yard.

7) Con­struc­tion of a Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre for Girls at YTC.

$17 mil­lion for:

1) Re­con­struc­tion of the ra­tion room at the Gold­en Grove Prison– de­scribed as 81 per cent com­plete.

2) In­stal­la­tion of CCTV at all prison fa­cil­i­ties–de­scribed as 85 per cent com­plete.

3) Com­ple­tion of draw­ings and spec­i­fi­ca­tions for the up­grade of plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tems at the Re­mand Yard.

4) En­gage­ment with NIPDEC to pro­vide pro­cure­ment, project man­age­ment, en­gi­neer­ing and con­struc­tion man­age­ment ser­vices; se­lec­tion of a con­trac­tor for the con­struc­tion of a Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre for Girls at YTC.

$0.8 mil­lion for eight re­fur­bished con­tain­ers in­stalled at Gold­en Grove for the es­tab­lish­ment of the Video Con­fer­enc­ing Cen­tre.

$0.5 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed for the con­struc­tion of the Hope, To­ba­go Cor­rec­tion­al Fa­cil­i­ty.

2022

$23.7 mil­lion spent in fis­cal 2021 for:

1) $22.4 mil­lion in up­grades of plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tems at Re­mand Yard–de­scribed as 45 per cent com­plet­ed.

2) In­stal­la­tion of alarm sys­tem at MSP–de­scribed as 40 per cent com­plet­ed.

3) $0.7 mil­lion for the de­sign and in­stal­la­tion of a CCTV sys­tem at the MSP–de­scribed as 95 per cent com­plet­ed.

2023

$23.0 mil­lion in fis­cal 2022 for:

1) $21 mil­lion for the com­ple­tion of the con­struc­tion of a sew­er­age treat­ment plant and wa­ter stor­age fa­cil­i­ty at the Re­mand Yard– de­scribed as 90 per cent com­plete.

2) $0.7 mil­lion for the com­ple­tion of the in­stal­la­tion of the CCTV sys­tem at MSP.

3) $0.5 mil­lion for three bus­es.

4) Com­ple­tion of de­signs and com­mence­ment of the in­stal­la­tion of an alarm sys­tem at MSP.

2024

$34.5 mil­lion was spent in fis­cal 2023, with $22.7 mil­lion spent on:

1) $9.7 mil­lion for the up­grade of plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sys­tems at Re­mand Yard–project de­scribed as 99 per cent com­plete.

2) $6.1 mil­lion for the in­stal­la­tion of the perime­ter fence at Gold­en Grove.

3) $2.3 mil­lion an­nu­al­ly for three years for con­tract­ing a se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­ny to sup­ply, de­liv­er and in­stall an elec­tron­ic mon­i­tor­ing so­lu­tion for the es­tab­lish­ment of an Elec­tron­ic Mon­i­tor­ing Pro­gramme for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

4) $0.5 mil­lion for two bus­es.

5) $0.5 mil­lion for the in­stal­la­tion of an alarm sys­tem at MSP’s pen­i­ten­tiary.

2025

$18.1 mil­lion spent in fis­cal 2024, in­clud­ing on the fol­low­ing projects:

1) $9.3 mil­lion for perime­ter fence at Gold­en Grove–project de­scribed as 84 per cent com­plete.

2) $3.1 mil­lion in pay­ments for the Elec­tron­ic Mon­i­tor­ing Pro­gramme.

3) $1 mil­lion pay­ment for the sup­ply and de­liv­ery of three ve­hi­cles.

4) $1 mil­lion for the Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dence/Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre to ac­com­mo­date fe­male child of­fend­ers.

5) $0.9 mil­lion for a video con­fer­enc­ing room at Re­mand Prison.

$3 mil­lion al­lo­ca­tion for com­ple­tion of per­ma­nent struc­ture to house Video Con­fer­enc­ing Cen­tre at Gold­en Grove Prison, Arou­ca.

Ques­tions were sent to the Prison Ser­vice on the re­spec­tive projects, and the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions De­part­ment ac­knowl­edged re­ceipt, con­firm­ing they had for­ward­ed the ques­tions to the Com­mis­sion­er.