Chairman of the prison visiting committee, Bishop Charlesworth Browne, wants prisoners who are caught with cellphones in prison to face charges.
Just this week, a photo of Delano Forbes began making the rounds on social media.
The photo shows signs of serious injury from an incident which occurred on Wednesday.
The problem is that phone are contraband, and it is unlawful for prisoners to have access to personal phones.
The bishop has therefore called for those caught with cellphones to be penalised under the law.
“It is quite interesting, very often the media gets a slant from the prisoners. For various reasons, they can decide when they want to agitate a situation, when they want to give a certain opinion, certain views as the case may be, and they have ways and they have people in the media they know they can call, and they call them. They send them pictures and the like. There will come a time when… and I have been pressing for that… when this type of transmission will be made illegal, be made criminal. It is a national security breach. You can’t have someone taking pictures in prison and sending them outside,” the bishop argued.
Browne said that prisoners obtaining phones while in prison is a longstanding challenge. He said it is a breach of national security, adding that prisoners often use them to unjustly change how the media reports on prison matters.