DEREK ACHONG

The Prison Of­fi­cers' As­so­ci­a­tion is sup­port­ing the Gov­ern­ment's pro­posed move to help fa­cil­i­tate the re­lease of some pris­on­ers due to the on­go­ing COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. 

Speak­ing at a news con­fer­ence at the as­so­ci­a­tion's head­quar­ters in Arou­ca, yes­ter­day morn­ing, its Pres­i­dent Ceron Richards sug­gest­ed that the move would di­rect­ly as­sist in re­duc­ing over­crowd­ing at prison fa­cil­i­ties and con­se­quent­ly the po­ten­tial spread of the virus. 

How­ev­er, Richards sug­gest­ed that it should in­clude el­der­ly pris­on­ers, whose death sen­tences were com­mut­ed to life im­pris­on­ment, as well as pris­on­ers ac­cused or con­vict­ed of mi­nor crim­i­nal charges in­clud­ing fail­ure to pay child main­te­nance and traf­fic of­fences. 

Ac­cord­ing to Richards, most of those pris­on­ers were be­tween 60 and 70 years old, suf­fered from dis­eases such as di­a­betes and hy­per­ten­sion and had al­ready served over 30 years' in prison. He al­so claimed that most of them were among the best-be­haved pris­on­ers and were most re­cep­tive to re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion. 

"One con­vict­ed in­mate told me he was in­side so long that he ac­tu­al­ly re­quest­ed to at­tend the fu­ner­al of Dr Er­ic Williams," Richards said. 

While Richards ad­mit­ted that such re­leas­es were to be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the Ju­di­cia­ry and the Mer­cy Com­mit­tee, he not­ed that Prison Ser­vice would have an in­put in­to who stands to ben­e­fit based on their dis­ci­pli­nary record whilst in­car­cer­at­ed. 

Richards al­so claimed that if elec­tron­ic mon­i­tor­ing of per­sons had been op­er­a­tional and leg­is­la­tion for pa­role had been passed by Par­lia­ment, as re­peat­ed­ly sug­gest­ed by the as­so­ci­a­tion, the process could have been com­plet­ed quick­er and eas­i­er.   

Be­sides re­leas­ing some pris­on­ers, Richards called on the Gov­ern­ment to sup­ple­ment its al­ready de­plet­ed fleet to trans­port pris­on­ers that may need to be trans­ferred to oth­er fa­cil­i­ties and to solve wa­ter is­sues at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in Arou­ca. 

While Richards re­peat­ed­ly ad­mit­ted that pris­ons' con­di­tions still re­main far from per­fect, he called on his mem­bers to con­tin­ue to sup­port the Prison Ser­vice. 

"Of course we don't ex­ist in the best sit­u­a­tion but we, be­ing mem­bers of an es­sen­tial ser­vice, make it a pri­or­i­ty for us to sup­port the State at a time when it is in need," he said. 

Al­so speak­ing at the press con­fer­ence was the as­so­ci­a­tion's Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Lester Wal­cott, who con­firmed that ad­di­tion­al pro­to­cols had been im­ple­ment­ed to help pre­vent per­sons with COVID-19 from en­ter­ing prison fa­cil­i­ties. 

Wal­cott said that prison of­fi­cers had been is­sued with per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPE) and ther­mal scan­ners to be used on all vis­i­tors and staff en­ter­ing such fa­cil­i­ties. 

Wal­cott not­ed that af­ter the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion was tem­porar­i­ly closed last week af­ter a po­lice of­fi­cer with a re­cent trav­el his­to­ry com­plained of feel­ing un­well, a pris­on­er, who was at the sta­tion at the time, was quar­an­tined. 

How­ev­er, Wal­cott not­ed that he had not shown any symp­toms of the virus. 

In a press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, Pres­i­dent of the Sin­gle Fa­thers As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T Rhon­dall Fee­les said that his or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so sup­port­ed the move es­pe­cial­ly for pris­on­ers serv­ing sen­tences for fail­ing to pay child main­te­nance. 

"This call, how­ev­er, is NOT one to dis­con­tin­ue the pay­ment of child main­te­nance but rather to dis­cour­age im­pris­on­ment of these non-crim­i­nal of­fend­ers dur­ing this COVID-19 pan­dem­ic pe­ri­od," Fee­les said. 

He sug­gest­ed that all per­sons re­quired to make such pay­ments should reg­is­ter with the Ju­di­cia­ry's Court Pay Elec­tron­ic Pay­ment Sys­tem. 

"The SFATT sees this as a pos­i­tive move in the right di­rec­tion and hopes that even af­ter this pe­ri­od that our coun­try ex­am­ines less puni­tive and cost­ly mea­sures to com­pel per­sons to com­ply with these non-crim­i­nal of­fences. Jail is sure­ly not the an­swer," Fee­les said.