DNA testing for all prisoners before 2018

There are also plans to do DNA testing on the arrestee population throughout the country including Tobago.

Newsday understands that a DNA regulator from Jamaica has already been contracted to assist in the setting up of the DNA lab and he has already started the recruitment process for specialised persons to work in the DNA lab.

That person is based at the office of an elite agency at St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.

Yesterday, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi told Newsday that the DNA legislation has already been passed and the Government intends to comply with the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

“We are on an urgent operationalisation of the DNA laws which were last put into the statute books without any advance since 2011. The Ministry of National Security in conjunction with the office of the Attorney General has taken the lead on the following matters - The appointment of a regulator under the DNA legislation, the regulations for the DNA laws to be put into effect, the mapping of the DNA samples to be taken from the entire prison population, the exclusion population (TTPS, Prisons, Immigration, all protective services), and the arrestee population which is estimated at 1000 persons per month.

“So what we are doing is putting into effect the DNA laws because the country has for many years, simply just passed laws without putting them into operation.We are doing the same thing with respect to the electronic monitoring system.” The Attorney General also noted, “So, we will report further after the completion of the procurement exercise because we intend to operationalise this with immediacy”.

He said that DNA results will be fed into specialist courts which will manage the trial processes.