(Trinidad Guardian) An aggressive and hard-line approach has been taken to root out rogue officers within the prison system.
The man behind this is Acting Prisons Commissioner Deopersad Ramoutar and he has been able to carry out his mission with the help of law-abiding prison officers who are voluntarily coming forward with information on their crooked colleagues as they fight the ongoing criminality and free flow of contraband within the prisons’ walls.
Ramoutar started confiscating millions of dollars in cellphones, marijuana, cigarettes, phone chargers, sim cards, razor blades and other paraphernalia some of which are being sneaked into the prisons by men and women under his charge. The estimated value of the items seized to date is over $2.5 million.
They have arrested two officers so far, while other arrests are imminent, he said.
Meanwhile, in the last two years, 18 officers were arrested for illegal activities within the prisons’ walls.
The acting commissioner said, “confidence and trust” have compelled the right-thinking officers to come forward and he has promised them his full support.
It’s all part of the clean-up exercise Ramoutar has started at the nation’s prisons since assuming office on February 25.
For Ramoutar, who has 33 years of experience under his belt, the lockdown, searches and seizures are the “start of things to come.”
In an interview at his office at the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca, on Friday, Ramoutar said he would leave no stone unturned as he goes after these corrupt officers who have been bringing the organisation’s name into disrepute.
Last Monday, Ramoutar touched on the prisons’ thriving illicit trade at a press conference hosted by National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and call-ed on his officers to speak out if they see and know about any wrongdoing.
Luckily, Ramoutar’s call for action did not go in vain as several officers have stepped forward and willingly provided names of officers who they suspect are trafficking in prisons.
“While heading back to the office from the press conference over a dozen officers submitted names of traffickers (their colleagues) who they believe are crooked.”
The T&T Prison Service has also been receiving valuable tips through its hotline 800-7776.
Ramoutar began to shake down cells at Carrera, Golden Grove, Maximum Security, Port-of-Spain, Remand and Women’s Prison, stating that the situation was growing out of hand.
Searches were also conducted at the Youth Training Centre, Wayne Jackson Building and the Eastern Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre in the hunt for the unlawful items.
Most of the lockdowns were undertaken at Port-of-Spain, Carrera and Maximum Security prisons.
At the press conference, he also spoke about an officer who was caught with two pounds of marijuana, 3,500 cigarettes and several cellphones while entering the prison under his watch.
223 cellphones confiscated
In the last ten weeks, Ramoutar said, there have been 291 searches and seizures.
“It was a teamwork effort…prison officers working together with the members of the T&T Police Service,” he added.
In the searches 223 cellphones, 9,159 cigarettes, and 14,041.8 grammes marijuana (seven to eight pounds) were seized. The cellphones were priced at $557,050. The marijuana had a street value of $702,009 while the cigarettes were estimated at $915,090.
Other items seized were 94 sim cards, 548 cellphone chargers, 67 phone batteries, 365 improvised weapons, 54 USB cables, 340 headsets, five knives, one triple-A battery, two hotplates, 836 razor blades, 268 cigarette lighters, 120 smoking devices, 1,727 wrapping paper, three calculators, one barbering machine, one fan, one plier, two and a half hacksaw blades, one screwdriver, one electric scale and ten memory cards. The lighters were valued at $13,400, sim cards $28,200, USB cables $5,400, cell phone chargers $164,040, phone batteries $13,400, headsets $3,400, electric scale $800 and wrapping paper $17,270.
A tabulation showed at least two-thirds of the confiscated items were estimated close to $2.5 million.
Ramoutar explained inside the jails, a cigarette can fetch between $100 to $200.
One gramme of marijuana is priced at $50 while a high-grade ‘ten-piece’ can cost between $800 to $1,000. A ‘ball’, which is a small quantity of cocaine, is $60.
He said the illegal trade was “big business” in prison.
With each crackdown and seizure, Ramoutar said, the price of a marijuana joint and cigarette would skyrocket. “When there is an abundance the price would drop.”
Ramoutar said inmates would do a trade-off or exchange grocery items purchased by relatives and loved ones from the prison’s canteen for drugs or cigarettes. “The inmates would use these items as currency to buy their drugs. It’s really a bartering system,” he added.
Gangs in prison
According to Ramoutar, the most sought after commodities are cellphones and marijuana.
“Inmates who are more involved in gang activities prefer the cellphones. They would also use marijuana as currency to pay their followers (gang members) and mules who would attack members of opposing gangs.”
Ramoutar could not say how many gangs exist within the prisons.
“We have several gangs in the prisons,” he said. The prison population is approximately 3,500.
He said officers who try to stop this flourishing trade are threatened while some have even paid with their lives. There are 3,478 officers in the service.
Ramoutar confessed he was “embarrassed and disappointed” by what some of his officers have been doing. He said officers who traffick “are in the minority,” but could not give a definitive number.
“I would say there are quite a few in the factory that makes officers crooked. I would have put a spoke in the gears of that factory.”
He sounded a warning to officers who have been beating the system “to desist from their criminal ways” or feel the full force of the law.
The acting commissioner believes the corrupt officers operate individually rather than as a group.
Malfunctioning scanners
Questioned how items are smuggled into the prison, Ramoutar said, there have been various ways. Malfunctioning scanners have made it easy for rogue officers to slip in with illegal items.
Ramoutar admitted that “not all of our scanning machines work properly every day. The ministry is looking into this to assist us in having the machines in working order.” Items are also brought in from visitors entering the prisons, drones, and utility vehicles.
He said on one occasion illegal items were found in a sanitation truck that came into the prison to pick up garbage.
Unlawful items also get into the hands of prisoners when they attend clinics, courts, programmes and external activities.
“There are times when people would pass on Golden Grove Road and throw items in our garden estate where inmates would know where to locate it. They would also pelt things over the wall at the Port-of-Spain Prison. Most times we are able to intercept it before it gets into the hands of inmates.”
He also revealed that at night boats would also drop off parcels in the water at Carrera Island.
“So we have to send officers every morning to search and find the stuff before the inmates go out to get it. It’s a daunting task to do all these searches.”
However, the most shocking so far is the use of drones to deliver illegal stuff.
“At times drones would fly over the property (prison) and drop items in the night. It had gotten so bad drones used to come close to the cells and the inmate would reach out and grab the illegal item from the drone. We have put mechanisms in place to stop that now. I am explaining how daring they are. There are so many innovative ways of smuggling drugs.”
On whether the situation at the nations’ prisons is an indictment on the prisons administration, Ramoutar said “on the contrary, if we were not finding it…it would have been an indictment.”
Ramoutar: I have no control over jammers and grabbers
In 2017, then national security minister Stuart Young stated that prisons were having difficulty implementing the grabbers and jammers due to electrical problems.
The grabbers and jammers, designed to fight against the use of cellphones in prison, were procured under the People’s Partnership administration.
At Monday’s press conference, Ramoutar was asked if the jammers and grabbers are in use.
“I will not assume that that technology is in use. Unfortunately, I have never seen one of those. Simple.”
Ramoutar was also asked if he had not seen the device how would he know it was in use.
“Just like every citizen, we hear reports of jammers and grabbers and so on. But I am not responsible for that.”
Pressed as to who would be responsible, Ramoutar replied, “I can’t say.”
At this point, the National Security Minister interjected saying “that equipment, while based at the prison, is under the purview of the Strategic Services Agency in accordance with government’s policy.”
Asked by Guardian Media if the jammers and grabbers have been serving the prisons’ interests, Ramoutar replied, “I am unable to speak on that. I have no control over those devices. That is not a question for the prison service.”
Ramoutar admitted the prisons cannot continue to do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different result.
One technique for improvement, he said, is micromanagement.
“Micromanagement is seen as a negative term. But when things are not going right and the people responsible are not doing their jobs…you and your executives have to go in there and get your hands dirty. And when it starts to improve you step aside.”
Ramoutar said his service would not be the first or last organisation to indulge in corrupt and illegal practices.
“In many other organisations and establishments, criminals exist, so I am not taking licks by myself. Corruption in the prison service is a reflection of corruption in society.”
