PRISON PHONES INACTION

Placing the blame squarely at the feet of the Government, Jamaica Federation of Corrections Chairman Arlington Turner says correctional officers are not responsible for crimes hatched from behind bars.

Turner, who has been at the union’s helm for 13 years, said a proposal was submitted to Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People’s National Party (PNP) administrations that would close the lid on information leaving prisons but said it has been repeatedly shelved.

“We will not sit and take the blame for these assertions coming from the minister, moreso our defence minister, who is the prime minister,” Turner told The Gleaner in a sitdown at his office on Tuesday.

“The fact is, we, as correctional officers, don’t believe that the Government is really serious about treating with the issues within our correctional institutions. We can narrow it down to the issue as it relates to cell phones behind bars,” he added.

He said the matter of how the devices get behind bars for criminals to place or facilitate hits had been a longstanding concern.

Turner observed that most of the island’s 10 prisons and detention centres are located near communities, which facilitates the smuggling of items into the facilities without the knowledge of correctional officers.

Thrown over fences

He said that packages are thrown over fences daily by residents of nearby communities and visitors at the two maximum-security facilities – Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in downtown Kingston and the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town.

He said that it is the vigilance of correctional officers that prevents many packages of contraband from reaching the hands of inmates, adding that the limited use of closed-circuit television cameras hampers effective monitoring of the facilities’ perimeters and surrounding areas.

“The eyes of our officers are what prevent what comes in from outside. Every single day we have that to contend with,” Turner said.

He said that currently, houses are adjoining the walls at Tower Street.

“The Government is not serious about our prisons. In 2017, we travelled overseas to the United States to a conference. We came back from Boston, … there were issues as it relates to phones, but what we came back with was how these phones can be made useless to the prisoners. We have forwarded this documentation to the Ministry of National Security. We have not heard anything since,” Turner disclosed.

Just over a week ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey told journalists that friends-turned-rivals, both overseas and locally, contacted prisoners to facilitate the August 11 massacre of eight people and the injuring of at least 10 in Cherry Tree Lane, Four Paths, in Clarendon.

Immediately, fingers were pointed at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) as a conduit for organised crime.

Brigadier Radgh Mason, the head of the DCS, subsequently said it is difficult to plug the holes in correctional facilities while acknowledging that some of his subordinates are complicit in smuggling contraband or looking the other way.

Turner said if correctional officers are facilitating illegal activities behind bars, “they are in the minority”.

He said the introduction of cell phone jammers proved to be problematic because they affected the landing of aircraft at the nearby Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

They also affected nearby communities.

“We came back with documentation to say you can jam these phones within the radius of the prisons so you don’t have to worry about the outside … . The ministry did not act on it. So we’re saying clearly, as correctional officers, that governments across the board are not serious about our prisons,” he said.

“We’ll be sitting here and talking about this issue of cell phones in our prisons next year and the next 10 years from now. They are doing absolutely nothing,” said Turner.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com