As of last evening, one of five prisoners who escaped from the Golden Grove Prison remained at large. While the work of the law enforcement agencies involved in the quick recapture of four of the inmates should be commended, acting Commissioner of Prisons Deopersad Ramoutar should have a lot of questions to answer after allowing this huge security breach at the facility so early into his watch.
Commissioner Ramoutar may face a baptism of fire because the security processes at the facility should have been at a stage by now, where it should be impossible for even a mouse to leave a prison cell undetected due to the preceding months in which several security issues occurred at the facility and neighbouring Maximum Security Prison which forced the authorities to respond immediately with countermeasures.
Only in June of last year, a major escape plot was foiled after paraphernalia, including explosive devices, were found stashed on land outside the MSP. Months later, it was revealed that the murders of at least two prison officers and attacks against others were linked to another escape plot by a group of high-profile inmates. Those prisoners had dug an intricate series of holes linking their cells in preparation for an escape attempt.
The aforementioned incidents prompted then-Police Commissioner Gary Griffith, working with then-Prison Commissioner Dennis Pulchan, to organise a special unit to guard prisoners at the MSP and heighten the facilities’ overall security.
As such, unless this and all other structures previously organised to deal with security breaches were dismantled, there is no reason why five prisoners should have been able to so easily escape on Sunday—whether in a low-risk wing of the facility or not. Furthermore, reports from the Commissioner that officers who responded to the jailbreak prevented other inmates from escaping suggest a lot worse could have transpired.
Indeed, national security receives far too much of the annual national budget for the main facilities which house prisoners to still be in a dilapidated state and lacking the infrastructure to guard those housed there, among them some of the most notorious criminals in the country.
Given the history of rogue elements in the prison system—which saw 18 officers charged for infractions related to assisting prisoners’ criminal enterprise last year—the recent escape breathes life to citizens’ continuing belief that prisoners are aided in escape attempts both inside and outside.
As we speak, citizens are still awaiting the full findings of the probe into the July 24, 2015 incident where police constable Sherman Maynard was killed and a prison officer wounded as inmates Hassan Atwell, Allan “Scanny” Martin and Christopher “Monster” Selby escaped from the Port-of-Spain Prison. Martin was subsequently killed in a shootout with police while Atwell was found dead days later.
It appears, therefore, that the prison authorities and by extension the Ministers of National Security since then, including the incumbent Fitzgerald Hinds, who has held this portfolio before, are not serious enough about dealing with the issues within the system.
This latest prison break suggests we need not only a full probe but an end to the excuses and a commitment from Minister Hinds, following his visit to the facility yesterday, and the Government to fix the flaws instead of more empty promises.
