Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter/Pro­duc­er

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) is cau­tion­ing against what it de­scribes as “broad-brush ac­cu­sa­tions” in the wake of the State of Emer­gency (SoE), stress­ing that the vast ma­jor­i­ty of prison of­fi­cers serve with in­tegri­ty and should not be un­fair­ly ma­ligned.

An SoE was de­clared on Ju­ly 18, as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro re­vealed that in­tel­li­gence gath­ered point­ed to a co­or­di­nat­ed and high­ly dan­ger­ous crim­i­nal net­work op­er­at­ing from with­in the prison sys­tem. Gue­var­ro said in­mates with gang con­nec­tions were us­ing smug­gled cell­phones for en­crypt­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion and were ac­tive­ly plan­ning to as­sas­si­nate se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers, mem­bers of the ju­di­cia­ry, and em­ploy­ees at the state pros­e­cu­tion of­fice.

When asked on Thurs­day whether rogue law en­force­ment of­fi­cers were in­volved in fa­cil­i­tat­ing these crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties, Gue­var­ro said that deny­ing it would be a lie to the pub­lic. It was point­ed out that cell­phones are found al­most week­ly in cells, sug­gest­ing in­ter­nal com­plic­i­ty.

He added, “So, there are per­sons who seem hell-bent on fa­cil­i­tat­ing the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of these per­sons with the out­side, so by re­mov­ing them from that en­vi­ron­ment and plac­ing them in one where they are a lot more se­cure, I can feel rest as­sured that that com­mu­ni­ca­tion link is bro­ken.”

Asked by Guardian Me­dia if he be­lieves this was an in­dict­ment of prison of­fi­cers, POA pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don em­pha­sised that the de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency is a na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty de­ci­sion and not an in­dict­ment of the men and women tasked with keep­ing the coun­try’s pris­ons se­cure.

But while Gor­don said that the POA sup­ports “fair and trans­par­ent in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to wrong­do­ing”, he added that state­ments about cor­rupt of­fi­cers must be han­dled re­spon­si­bly.

“Broad-brush ac­cu­sa­tions on­ly erode trust and un­fair­ly de­mor­alise those on the front­lines,” Gor­don stressed.

While wel­com­ing any gen­uine ef­fort to bol­ster prison se­cu­ri­ty and dis­rupt or­gan­ised crime, the as­so­ci­a­tion voiced con­cern over the im­pact of pub­lic rhetoric on of­fi­cer morale.

“Prison of­fi­cers are a re­silient group, but morale de­pends on vis­i­ble back­ing, ad­e­quate re­sources, and re­spect for the sac­ri­fices they make,” he ex­plained.

The POA ac­knowl­edged that its mem­bers have mixed feel­ings about the SoE.

“We are re­lieved to see ad­di­tion­al re­sources to curb gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty, yet con­cerned about in­creased work­loads, height­ened ten­sions, and the need for clear op­er­a­tional sup­port,” he said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing law and or­der and called on all stake­hold­ers to unite in ad­dress­ing the deep­er is­sues dri­ving crime, both be­hind prison walls and across the wider so­ci­ety.

At­tempts to con­tact Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Car­los Cor­raspe have so far been un­suc­cess­ful.