The discovery of a loaded pistol among the prison population at the Maximum Security Prison (MSP), Golden Grove, Arouca, on Wednesday, is causing alarm among prison officers.
The officers are now seeking assurances about their safety from top national security officials, even as searches intensified at the facility yesterday.
“One doesn’t have to look too far back to the events of 2015, with that escape from the Port-of-Spain Prison,” Prison Officers’ Association president Gerard Gordon said.
He recalled that in that incident, inmates were “shooting themselves out of the prison in broad daylight.”
Wednesday’s discovery of a loaded 9 mm pistol with seven rounds of ammunition during a lockdown has left officials baffled, with some suggesting that advanced drone technology is being used by criminal elements outside the prison to arm their incarcerated cohorts.
Gordon said, “The air space in and around MSP should be restricted, but it is not. The issue of finding firearms within the walls of the prison is not a foreign concept.”
He dismissed claims that a prison officer could have been responsible, pointing out that the number of officers currently suspended or before the courts for offences is enough evidence they are serious about holding persons to account.
“Of all arms of law enforcement, the prison and the Prison Service has been one who has attempted and continues to address trafficking by officers, or even servants of the state, or even civilians who enter the prison,” he said.
Gordon said routine and spontaneous searches are part of the MSP security apparatus. He said while technology is advancing daily, prison authorities continue to operate in dilapidated conditions with failing infrastructure and equipment.
He recommended the installation of a geo-fence around the prison like the one installed at the Piarco International Airport.
“That is what would inhibit or prevent any errant drone pilot from having a drone enter the airspace in and around whatever facility you need to keep secure,” he said.
