Cabinet has rejected the special Prisons Committee’s recommendation of a commission of enquiry into the Prisons Service. This was revealed by Justice Minister Emmanuel George during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair. George explained the reasons for the rejection.
“Cabinet felt that there were already several commissions of enquiry into the justice system conducted in the past, and to have another one would not only be costly but will also delay the implementation of measures that could be implemented quickly,” he said.
He said Cabinet felt it would be more appropriate “to discuss with the judiciary, and particularly the Chief Justice, matters having to do with the speedier hearing of cases of inmates and persons on remand. That will more than likely be more productive that implementation of a commission of enquiry.”
On another recommendation of the committee—to arm prison officers—George said it was felt the Commissioner of Police was best suited to deal with that. He noted that under the Firearms Act, the CoP was the sole authority to decide who would be issued with firearms.
Cabinet says yes
Yesterday, George said Cabinet agreed to ten of the committee’s recommendations. Cabinet agreed to move expeditiously to build a new remand prison at Golden Grove, Arouca, and to purchase 300 beds for the Remand Prison. George said Persad-Bissessar, as chair of the National Security Council, yesterday signed off to allow for a contract to be awarded to ensure the safety of prisons officers, including buying of bulletproof vests for them.
Other recommendations accepted include:
• Building or allocating safe houses for prison officers (and families) under imminent threat. George said he is expected to meet with the Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal to allocate houses for that purpose.
• Improving lighting, toilets and other infrastructure at prisons. Cabinet set up an implementation team yesterday to look at expediting that recommendation. The team comprises the Justice Minister, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and the Commissioner of Prisons.
• Training prisons officers in the use of force.
• To pursue with the Chief Justice the delays in cases involving prisoners. George said he would seek to arrange a meeting with Archie today.
• Cellphone jammers, grabbers and full body scanners.
• Closed-circuit security cameras at all prisons—already being addressed.
• Updated Prisons Rule to be laid in Parliament and passed before February 1.
• Use of the Santa Rosa Correctional Facility to reduce overcrowding at Golden Grove.
The committee
The committee, chaired by criminologist and Police Service Commission chairman Prof Ramesh Deosaran, was set up last week by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It came in the wake of the November 7 shooting death of off-duty prisons officer Andy Rogers in Malabar, which preceeded incidents of prisons officers being injured during rioting by the prisoners and a protest which led to prisoners rioting at the Arouca prison.
Its objectives were to investigate, study and make recommendations to effectively deal with several complaints listed by prisons officers and prisoners. The issues of overcrowding at the Remand Yard in Golden Grove and the security of prison officers were among the areas of concern.
The nine-member committee presented its eight-page report to Persad-Bissessar last Friday. It was reviewed in Monday’s Finance and General Purposes Committee of the Cabinet and was yesterday discussed at the Cabinet meeting.