Prison officers slam Hinds

.Public Relations Officer of the Association, Burton Hill, yesterday accused Hinds of abusing his parliamentary privileges and power.

Hinds is the Member of Parliament for Laventille West as well as the Minister of Public Utilities.

“We are of the view that the one hour, 50 minutes and 49 seconds used by chairman Hinds, could have been used and should have been used to focus on the jail break on July 24 , 2015, which was a national issue. Rather, he chose to abuse his parliamentary privileges and power,” charged Hill.

During last week’s JSC meeting, Hinds made reference to a prison officer, charged with murder, being granted access to services outside of the prison.

He had added that no consideration was given to the possibility of the victim’s family at a banking institution.

He had also questioned the Prison Service at length about one of his constituents __ Jerome Henry-who was in custody charged with the wilful neglect of his (Henry’s) son who drowned in a drain at Belmont.

“Jerome Henry was allowed to visit and view the body of his deceased son,” said Hill.

“After having the opportunity to view the body, he was so distraught that he could not walk nor stand.

Minister Hinds failed to put that on the public record.” Hill continued that instead Hinds “misrepresented the facts” and highlighted that the officers “hurriedly” asked the inmate to leave the funeral parlour, focusing on their own safety rather than the inmate’s grief. Hill insisted that such claim was “further from the truth”.