Slavery conditions

“I has the misfortune – I call it the worst day of my life – to visit Port of Spain Prison, Remand Yard, the Women’s Prison and I was only heartened by the work being done at YTC.

“Any citizen who walks into the Port-of-Spain Prison – Guantanamo Bay – as it is called, will be ashamed to be a national of this country. What I saw had nothing to do with global standards nor restorative justice. It is a cesspit of criminality and indoctrination into a university level of criminality that this bill will not fix.

“It is unfortunate that we feel we have any semblance of restorative justice when we have five to 12 men in an eight by ten (feet) cell, in darkness, with no ventilation.” He said such a cell has four bunk beds, but no mattresses or pillows, and with most men sleeping on the floor. The ventilation is blocked by muck. They are ‘out’ – if they are lucky – for 45 minutes in 24 hours. How can that person be rehabilitated when they come back out? I don’t even want to go into the slop pail, in this day and age. It is inhumane, it is unconscionable, and it is uncivilised.

It takes you back to the days of slavery. The Port-of-Spain Prison should be condemned, closed down,” Richards said.

He said his views were not an indictment on any government.

“If I go in there with all my common sense and my parents good upbringing for one month, me ain’t sure I’m coming out a normal person. I’m not sure I’ll be the same person, respond to society in the same way and be able to be rehabilitated. And that’s a month.” Saying his eight-hour visit to jail had made him sick, he wondered at the prospects for inmates held under such conditions, especially those on remand at the behest of the law courts and who are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. “Someone I spoke to was there for 14 years.” Richards said a report by Inspector of Prisons Daniel Khan details the atrocities faced by inmates.

“We need to fix that, as a standard of operation.” Richards lamented that the bill puts more burden onto a system that is failing.

He said few answers were given by the report of the Port of Spain prison break, such as whether accomplices took part or whether there was a dereliction of duty. “If we don’t get to the bottom of this, it could happen again.” On that count he was not comfortable putting more responsibility into the hands of the Prison Service under the bill.

He warned of illicit deals being struck to post bail, as he described a lawlessness, saying, “Cellphones and marijuana are a common trade, laptops, iPads, television sets – and I don’t want to call them ‘contraband’ – but I understand that individuals make their way into prison for ‘entertainment purposes’.”