A multi-million-dollar underground economy is thriving within Trinidad and Tobago’s prison system, according to Prison Officers’ Association General Secretary Lester Logie.
Lester Logie
He made the disclosure during an interview on Wednesday in response to an article published by the Trinidad Express newspaper titled ‘Prisons Service Vows Crackdown.’
The article reported that Acting Prisons Commissioner Elvin Scanterbury had pledged to confront rogue prison officers ‘head-on’ following the arrest on Monday of an off-duty female prison officer who was allegedly attempting to enter the women’s prison with contraband.
Police said the officer was found with 458 packets of cigarettes, 189 grammes of marijuana, two headsets, eight AAA batteries and 12 effervescent tablets.
Asked what could be done to identify and remove corrupt elements from the Prison Service, Logie said attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons could never be completely eliminated.
‘It’s a thriving underground economy and it is worth millions of dollars,’ he said.
Logie explained that a significant portion of the prison population consists of remand inmates-people who have been arrested and charged but have not yet been convicted.
He said many enter the prison system with existing addictions.
‘They got charged and they will come in and each has their addictions. They might be addicted to cocaine, marijuana, nicotine, and those habits will not stop overnight in the prison,’ Logie said.
‘We don’t expect that you would bring in somebody and overnight they will no longer have a smoking problem or a cocaine addiction or even an alcohol addiction.’
Logie said the problem is compounded by overcrowding and the lengthy periods inmates spend confined to their cells.
‘We put them in an overcrowded box, sometimes for up to 23 hours a day, and they will look for means of getting their addiction fix, so the Commissioner has this challenge in terms of how he treats with it,’ he said.
He also claimed that some prison officers turn a blind eye to contraband because they fear for their personal safety.
‘There are officers who will turn a blind eye for their self-preservation,’ Logie said, claiming that he knew of at least two officers who were killed following incidents at the Port of Spain Prison involving the seizure of contraband and cellphones.
Logie also disclosed that some prison officers have also become financially compromised, including through gambling debts.
‘I would say they have become bonded to some of these criminal elements, and so they will take that risk of bringing things into the prison,’ he said.
According to Logie, some officers have been paid by inmates and, in some instances, have allegedly been provided with vehicles.
He claimed to personally know of officers who arrived at work driving vehicles owned by inmates.
Logie further alleged that inmates had supplied some officers with SIM cards containing cellphone credit valued at as much as TT$50,000.
He said the credit could then be sold on the public market, effectively converting it into cash.
‘And we have members of the public buying phone cards on the side of the road and the phone card is from a phone in the prison.’
‘So, there are ways that these people might move money, and so this is a well-connected underground economy and we have officers involved. Yes, it is unfortunate, but it’s a reflection of society. We have a crime problem and the prisoners are just a microcosm of it,’ Logie added.