Caption: Waye Sturge
By Alicia Chamely
GENERAL Secretary of the Prisons Officers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago (POA) Lester Logie says the government is only focusing on sensationalism and not the 2019 Amendments made to the Prisons Act which allows for “prohibited items” to get into prisons.
Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge is refuting Logie’s interpretation of the Prisons Act, which has no provisions allowing for prisoners to have any item that could be used for communication.
According to Logie, who spoke with AZP News on Friday, Amendments made to the Prisons Act in 2019, allow for electronic items such as televisions to be brought into the prisons under the discretion of the Commissioner of Police.
Logie was responding to Minister of Defence Wayne Sturges revelation that a prisoner had a 65-inch flat screen television in his cell and prison officers often claim ignorance as to how such large items can get into the prison.
Speaking on Wednesday night at the Caroni Central Budget Consultation, held at the Three Roads Community Centre in Freeport, Sturge said, “Usually when you confront the prisons about how things going, they don’t seem to bring anything into the prisons—is always drones dropping it in. So, I don’t know how they dropped in a 65-inch TV!”
Logie said the problem was not prison officers but the legislation that allowed for these items to come into the prisons under the discretion of the Commissioner of Prisons.
He sent AZP News a copy of the section of legislation.
The Amended Legislation was debated and passed at the Fifth Session of the Eleventh Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on December 19, 2019.
Section of 3 of the Amended Prisons Act reads:
(a) in section 2, by deleting the definition of “prohibited article” and substituting the following definition: “prohibited article” includes—
(a) dangerous drugs, explosives, firearms, ammunition, artillery, weapons, mobile telephones, cameras, sound recording devices, electronic devices, information technology equipment, alcohol, tobacco, money, clothing, food, drink, letters, books, tools or any article likely to be prejudicial to the safety, security, good order and discipline of prisons;
(b) any article the introduction or removal of which into or out of a prison or any part thereof is prohibited by the Prison Rules; or
(c) any article not expressly authorised to be brought into a prison by the Commissioner of Prisons.”
Logie argued that while Section 3 (a) lists what was considered to be “prohibited”, (c) could be interpreted as once these articles are authorised by the Commissioner of Prisons they could be brought into the prisons.
He said rather than focusing on “sensationalism” and acting accusatory towards prison officers, the government should instead review the laws.
Contacted for a response, Minister Sturge said he was unaware of any law that allowed for the Commissioner of Prisons to authorise prisoners receiving items that were listed as prohibited. He disputed Logie’s interpretation of the law.
Sturge said via WhatsApp, “TVs and gaming systems such as PS5s and the like allow for unauthorised communication. If my memory serves me correctly, the Prison Rules would give guidance as to what is authorised and what is not. Perhaps the person making the statement might have information others are not privy to since he works at the prison.”
He said, “Prisoner communications must be restricted and closely monitored given the history of assassinations being ordered behind prison walls.”
When the section of legislation was sent to him, Sturge disagreed with Logie’s interpretation, highlighting (a) which lists all prohibited items that included communication devices and noted (c) does not give interpretation that the prohibition of these items could be dismissed by the Commissioner.
He said, “He (Commissioner of Prisons) cannot give authorisation for any item expressly prohibited by law.”
Commissioner of Prisons Carlos Corraspe and his predecessor, Deopersad Ramoutar are both quoted in the local media saying that televisions in prisons were only placed in common areas.
