Room for 320 more in jail

The measures ranged from refurbishment of existing facilities to implementation of long-delayed plans for electronic monitoring.

However, the minister made no mention of proposals for pardon and for own-bail.

The minister said ongoing refurbishment works at the Maximum Security Prison were 90 per cent complete.

“It is expected that when completed this building will accommodate an additional 320 persons,” Dillon said in relation to work being done on Building No 13.

The minister was replying to a question in the Senate filed by UNC Senator Wade Mark.

Other measures currently being implemented include: transfer of convicted inmates from the Port-of-Spain Prison to the Golden Grove prison facilities and the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre; transfer of some of the inmates from Remand to the Maximum Security Prison; identification of land for a new prison in Tobago; new video conferencing facilities to link jails with judicial officers; and “new sentencing options”.

In relation to the introduction of electronic monitoring, Dillon gave no timeline of implementation.

He said the prison in Tobago was built to hold 30 yet houses 59. The question of overcrowding in jail has taxed the State for years.

More recently, consultations by the Ministry of the Attorney General have seen Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi state that the cost of housing a prisoner is $25,000 a month.