(Trinidad Guardian) Official minutes from an executive meeting which took place at the Prison’s Administration Building, Phillip Street, Port-of-Spain, on January 27, 2015, has revealed that prisons officials were aware of plans for a jail break by inmates at the Port-of-Spain prison. The T&T Guardian has in its possession a copy of the minutes. But while the executives were aware of the escape plan, they failed to put security measures in place to prevent it or to alert the authorities.
Six months later, on July 24, people in the city were on edge after the prison break actually took place. With handguns and a grenade, three men broke free from Port-of-Spain prison in a dramatic episode that left a police officer murdered, a prisons officer wounded, two of the escapees killed, and another one on the run for hours before being killed by a notorious gang in Laventille.
Three prisons officers were later suspended. In the minutes, under paragraph 4.0 labelled Security, subheading the ‘Alleged Escape Plan’, it was revealed that Assistant Commissioner (William) Alexander reported that a phone call was received which indicated that four inmates were planning to escape in a car at the car park.
According to the minutes, “Mr Alexander reported that a phone call received by the gate-keeper POSP indicated that four inmates are planning to escape in a car at the car park.
“He added that collaboration with ex-agencies suggested that the call came from within the prison, a phone was seized and being checked.”
The document revealed that senior officers who attended the meeting included former prisons commissioner Conrad Barrow, deputy commissioners Ronald Morgan and Sterling Stewart (now commissioner), assistant commissioners William Alexander, Michael Walker, Cecil Duke and Chander Sinanan, and senior superintendents Gerard Wilson, Dane Clarke, Thomas Espinoza, Fize Khan and Dennis Pulchan.