Security beef-up for prisons

Lt. Colonel Prescod

INCREASED SURVEILLANCE measures, including the use of camera systems, in the island's prisons have been promised by Commissioner of Corrections, Lt. Colonel John Prescod.

"We have signed off on a contract and have received approval for camera systems to be put in place to monitor activities of inmates while they are on the blocks and also for the perimeter walls. The surveillance camera system will be expanded beyond the entrances," the Commis-sioner said in a interview released to the media by JAMPRESS yesterday.

"We are also looking to get scanners and electronic devices to detect any metal coming in," he added.

The Commissioner of Corrections was speaking against the background of recent disturbances at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town, where inmates were involved in a confrontation with soldiers and warders searching their cells for contraband. Inmates, warders and soldiers were injured in the fracas and knives, sharpened pieces of metal, cellular telephones and television sets were seized.

He said that too much contraband was entering the prisons and the authorities would have to cut back on the volume of food and other items carried in for inmates, in order to keep the environment as clean as possible.

He said the Correctional Services wanted to get more inmates to wear uniforms, but a number of measures needed to be put in place before that could be done.

"There is not a modern laundry system and we have to repair the wash tubs so inmates can wash the uniforms themselves. We have to set up a system where we have a continuous budget to provide uniforms for the 2,700 new inmates each year," he pointed out.

The Commissioner said the prison authorities had been successful in getting about 60 per cent of inmates to wear uniforms.

Lt. Colonel Prescod said that overcrowding in prisons would be reduced temporarily when work was completed this year on a centre to house remand inmates.

"The centre will remove the majority of those who are being remanded," he said, noting that the exercise would be completed this year.

He said that the new remand centre would accommodate 800 persons. There are now about 700 persons in remand in the prisons and others in police lock-ups.

A number of warders are now being trained to take up their posts by July this year, Col. Prescod said. In addition, soldiers were being trained to do only security duties, including searches, the manning of sentry boxes and the escorting of inmates.

On last week's incident at the St. Catherine prison, the Commissioner pointed out that most of the inmates were not involved in the incident.

"Only four of the 10 blocks were involved in the particular incident," he said.

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