Prison officers take to the streets to demand better working conditions

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Officers congregated outside HMP to draw attention to a number of work-related issues (Observer photos)
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By Carlena Knight

[email protected]

“We are tired! We need help and we need it now,” was just one of the many pleas made by a handful of prison officers who took to the street outside the gates of His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) yesterday over a number of issues plaguing them at the correctional facility.

They listed unsanitary working conditions, outstanding pay and overtime, lack of manpower, lack of skills in dealing with mentally ill inmates, inadequate risk allowance and health and safety concerns as just a few of the many ills that have been affecting them for more than 10 years.

“Mr [National Security Minister] Benjamin, me and you may be good on a level but you lie. You lied to us. You barefacedly and boldly lied to us and we are tired. We are tired of suffering,” one officer said.

“We are tired of being made the scapegoats for your [inability] to run the prison; we are tired of it. We need help.

“We are not being compensated. We are not being paid overtime. We are not paid holiday pay. We are non-established officers and, according to the Labour Code, we are entitled to overtime. We are entitled to these things.

“Not even a meal allowance. Not even clean drinking water. We don’t have anything to protect ourselves with. No batons, no mace, nothing,” one officer said.

Conditions at the country’s only penal facility have been the subject of controversy for years with some human rights advocates calling for the erection of an entirely new prison.

The government embarked on a prison expansion and renovation project some years ago following another human rights report which harshly criticised the poor conditions and the fact that little was being done to address them.

This time it is the officers who have spoken out.

They highlighted as unfair the fact that a convicted British inmate is being housed at the former navy base while the local felons have been left to serve their sentences in inhumane conditions.

The officers also called for the immediate release of a Commission of Inquiry carried out some years ago which, according to them, is being kept under wraps as it incriminates a number of high officials.

Because of the wide range of issues, the aggrieved wardens are calling for the immediate removal of the Acting Superintendent of Prisons, Jermaine Anthony, and the Permanent Secretary Stacy Paige due to their perceived lack of leadership, lack of action and outright disrespect.

“We would like Mr Anthony to go back on the radio and apologise to the officers of HMP for calling all officers corrupt when he knows that is not the truth. The Commission of Inquiry speaks on it; release it [and] make things better for us in here,” one said.

The prison officers also said that they are not interested in speaking with Steadroy Benjamin, the minister who is responsible for the prison, unless he is accompanied by Prime Minister Gaston Browne, claiming Benjamin has given them empty promises for years and what they “need now is action”.

“Prime Minister, we need to see you. You need to come and see us. We are crying out to you. We want you to come. We don’t want no promise, we don’t want no sweet talk, we need you, we need action. Come and see us,” another pleaded.

The protest is expected to continue until the prison officers’ demands are met.

Observer media reached out to Acting Superintendent Anthony for a comment but he declined.

However, Minister Benjamin addressed the matter when Observer reached out to him yesterday.

He said that work is underway to address matters at HMP in a “strategic and systematic manner”, which includes the general prison environment and allowances that are owed to prison officers.

His words were corroborated by Works Minister Lennox Weston who told Observer last week that the plan to retrofit the entire penal institution would be done in stages.

Weston said that a facility where 180 prisoners could be housed was recently completed and another phase has begun with the aim of finishing it before the end of the year.

“We are going to do the second area now. We are working on the Remand Centre and the whole building needs to be replaced, the toilets need updating to international standards, we are fixing the roof and also inside.

“We are going as quickly as we can … we are building the prison inside out. This is just the second phase. We are going building by building,” Weston said.

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