Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart said yesterday he could not guarantee his officers’ safety since the prison system, and by extension the country, is being held to ranson by gang leaders who could use their cohorts both inside and outside the prison system to target his colleagues.
He said in the case of some 15 officers who were on a prisoner hit list was why he could do little to protect his officers, since there were prisoners (and one in particular who he did not name) with high links in the criminal world who were able to organise attacks against his colleagues.
“It has a high-risk inmate in our environment and I can’t guarantee the safety of my officers. God is in control and he don’t like evil and this is evil going on,” he told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday in response to queries about what measures were being put in place for the other prison officers named on a reported hit list of 15.
Prisons officer Fitzalbert Victor Jr, who was killed outside his Laventille home on Monday, was said to be on that hit list and the other officers are now fearful for their lives. Yesterday, Stewart said Victor, who had survived two attempts on his life before this week, could have made a request for a transfer by his supervisor but noted that because he was living in Laventille, which is deemed a high risk area, he became a target of gang members who had influence in those communities.
“He was a target that was easily reached and whatever happened inside (circumstances that led to his death) and these gang leaders can call their people and they forward the act on the officer,” he said.
He added: “My officers are caught in the middle where their lives are at risk and they are sacrificing their lives for the reduction of crime and we paying with our blood.
“It is a grave situation and unless certain actions are changed... the leaders who calling these shots are in our environment for too long and I not seeing change happening.”
When asked about the hit list itself, he said: “Everybody under threat including myself... they gunned down a commissioner.”
Stewart was referring to Prisons Commissioner Michael Hercules, who was shot dead at his home in Malick, Barataria, in 2009.
“We are under siege by these lawless killers. The Prime Minister (Dr Keith Rowley) talk about monsters and hypocrites rise up but these are who we are dealing with.”
He said, however, that for there to be a resolution to their woes, the inmates and circumstances had to change.
“Something has to be drastically done and they (gangsters) continue to hold the country and nothing is hardly being done because they not changing,” he said.
Contacted yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police Carlton Alleyne confirmed their investigations had so far revealed that Victor’s killing was possibly called from behind prison walls.
“That is the information that I heard and we are working with that and others. Several people have also been questioned,” he added.
Alleyne said, however, prisons officers fearful for their lives could apply for a firearm licence through the commissioner’s office.
The Prisons Officers Association has knocked Government for what it says is the lack of response to calls for more measures to ensure their safety.
Yesterday during a post Cabinet press briefing at the Magdalena Grand in Tobago, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the Government would continue to do what it could to address the situation.
In response to reports that some prison guards were threatening to resign, he said, “Now that the criminal element has turned on them, so as to create the kind of fear and the kinds of responses that you’re talking about walking off the job. What I will say to prison officers is that the population expects that you like every other citizen will do your duty.”
Guard on hit list fearful
One of the prisons officers on the hit list, meanwhile, yesterday complained that his cry for assistance in the midst of danger was ignored.
In a brief interview, the officer (who did not wish to be identified) said he was approached by two different inmates who told him of the plot.
He said the information, also since corroborated by another inmate, revealed plans to assassinate him, other officers and an inmate who other prisoners believed was a snitch.
“If the prison has a mandate to do certain things, why they not doing it?” the prisons officer asked. “I am next on the list and they never lifted a finger to help him (Victor). Victor worked reception where they search the inmates when they come in,” he added.
He said the threats were evaluated by a threat assessment team but complained that they often did not do a proper job of that.
“Sometimes they don’t really business and if you stay away from work they locking you up. They even keep putting the officers back to work in hot spots in the prison,” he said.
The officer said he had been keeping himself out of the limelight and his house locked up since learning of the threat to his life. He said something should be put in place for the officers who were threatened by the inmates.
He added: “They should have a place just for men to go in and apply and have a special committee set up. They dragging their foot too long. The process is no good and we shouldn’t be going through that. I should not have to stand up and wait like other people.
He said there were other people on the hit list which also included an inmate who revealed to prison officers that there was a plan by a group prisoners to break out the Port-of-Spain prison.