Caption: Independent Senator Anthony Vieira. Photo: T&T Parliament
By Alicia Chamely
INDEPENDENT Senator Anthony Vieira is calling for systematic reform of the penal system.
Vieira made this call on Tuesday at an Extraordinary Sitting of the Senate at the Red House, Port of Spain. The Sitting was called to debate the temporary utilisation of the army barracks Tetron, Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas, to house certain high-risk detainees.
He said, “I rise today in principled support for the prison order under consideration,” adding the government response to “a clear and present” danger was an accurate one.
He said, however, “Support does not preclude scrutiny, and it certainly does mean that we as legislators should forgo our duty to interrogate the implications of what we are being asked to approve.”
Vieira said, “I believe the situation we are trying to address is symptomatic of a deep underlying structure in our prisons systems.”
He said, “There is dire need for systematic penal reform. From how we manage intelligence, control contraband, engage staff and structure our management frameworks.”
Vieira said, “It seems to me that the order under consideration today should prompt us to consider the bigger picture, which is the need for comprehensive reform in the penal system.”
He said, “This mischief we are trying to cure today is symptomatic of a series of underlying difficulties in the prison system.”
Vieira said the relocation order was a “temporary solution” and caution should be paid as “temporary measures can become long-term defaults.”
He added, “It should not obscure the need for institutional change unless we make substantial changes to the prison structure, the prison rules and the process and relations between management and staff, and between staff and prisoners, the underlying difficulties cannot and will not be brought to an end.”
Vieira also voiced his concerns over “prison culture” spreading into the Defence Force.
He said, “Is it healthy to embed the culture of the prison into the ethos of the Regiment?”
Vieira cautioned, “There is always the danger of corruption, coercion or collusion, the very same dynamics that have plagued our prisons systems could contaminate our armed forces.”
He asked what “safeguards” would be put in place to ensure the “same corrupting, undermining influence, currently in our conventional prisons, similarly do not infect our soldiers?”
Vieira said, “In this country our system is still, 2025, grappling with legacies of colonial governance, structural under investment and pressures of crime.”
Though he was in full support, he said, “What this order highlights, in my respectful view, is the need for prison reform.”
