No disciplinary action on POS jailbreak

Chairing yesterday’s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security at Tower D, Port-of-Spain, Hinds said the trio remain suspended but no action has yet come from the State.

The case went to a disciplinary tribunal on August 16 but after one member resigned in October, the Public Services Commission voided the tribunal on December 6, with a fresh one due to be named.

Lamenting this “horrific timeline”, Hinds added, “Worse, the DPA (Director of Public Administration) has told us that these disciplinary tribunal hearings are three to five years.” The JSC also asked if any decision, by the Prison Service, to allow inmates out to do personal transactions, is governed by a written policy or if favouritism is practised.

Opposition Senator and member of the committee, Wayne Sturge, lamented that the Prison Service denied a non-violent Laventille father, Jerome Henry - remanded for negligence in the accidental drowning of his son, Josiah - from attending the funeral, but that a remanded prison officer charged with killing his wife was let out to do a bank transaction in full view of the public.

Worse, the officer’s presence in the bank occurred in the absence of any uniformed police officer (but guarded by plainclothes prison officers) and came as a shock to two of the murder victim’s relatives who also happened to be in the bank.

The committee learnt that no other adult inmate has been afforded such a privilege in the past year, and that the accused officer has actually been let out, accompanied by prison officers, to do personal transactions on three separate occasions. Given the possible security risks involving the remanded officer, several JSC members expressed shock that his visit occurred on the peak month-end time of Friday November 25, just ahead of the last Local Government election.

While Acting Prisons Commissioner, Cecil Duke, had disallowed Henry to attend the funeral of his son, he allowed Henry to view the body at a funeral home.

Prisons Commissioner, Sterling Stewart, said he would have let Henry attend the funeral. The JSC consisted of Hinds, Sturge, Point Fortin MP Nicole Olliviere, Government Senator Michael Coppin, Senate Deputy President Nigel De Freitas, and Independent Senator Taurel Shrikissoon. The Prisons Service top brass present included Stewart; Asst Commissioner, Dennis Pulchan; Chief Welfare Officer, Hayden Walcott; and Senior Supt Carlos Corrapse.