Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart says security systems at the nation’s prisons have been beefed up with the installation of scanners and jammers.
Now the inmates can no longer make phone calls on illegal cell phones but may make outgoing calls to relatives and friends locally and abroad using the Inmate Calling Solutions (ICS) system.
Several prisons officers received training at the Golden Grove Prison on Thursday on using ICS to monitor the inmate’s calls and manage the system.
Some 300 inmates at the Remand Yard in Golden Grove Prison and at the Maximum Security Prison have registered with the programme.
In a brief telephone interview yesterday, Stewart said the calls were monitored for the safety and security of citizens living in and outside the prison.
“It is not a matter that is a prerogative of theirs. It is our mission statement to maintain safety and security and it is our mission statement to get rid of the contraband phones in our environment. If it is used for nefarious activity then we have a form of intelligence officers to monitor the calls. These phones are a positive.”
He said the use of the phones would allow inmates to make contact with their loved ones.
“It is to prepare for their reintegration in society and we don’t want a disconnect from their loved ones and family support,” he said.
Stewart said there would be prisons officers and officers trained in intelligence who would be able to decipher codes.
He said with the implementation of the scanners and jammers the inmates could no longer contact the outside world by means of illegal cell phones.
“It is functional now and they no longer can use their cell phones to contact people. The grabbers and jammers are there to jam the frequency of their cell phones.”
He said the system costs millions of dollars but declined to state how much.
“We continue to treat with all kinds of contraband coming in the prison inclusive of officers, inmate families and people who come to do activities in the prison. This is working quite well,” he said.
He said recently a prisons officer who was found with contraband material was charged and brought before the court.
“It was detected by the full-body scanners. It is a deterrent. The scanners are there to rid the contraband material and the environment has less risk,” he said.
Stewart saluted the committed and dedicated officers who placed their lives at risk on a daily basis.
Secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon, said it was the association’s idea to install the phones for the inmates.
“If you jamming the phone you must give the inmates and them something else,” he said.
However, Gordon said members of the association should have been invited to the ICS launch.
“And we do support the initiative.”
When that question was posed at the training session on Thursday, assistant commissioner Dane Clarke said that the association was informed of the system and supported the idea.
However, he said, they were not invited because they were not among the officers who were being trained.