Task Force on prison officer threats

COME January legislation will be brought to Parliament that seeks to increase the penalties for smuggling contraband into the prisons, National Security Minister Stuart Young said yesterday.

He made the announcement at a press conference called in the wake of the murder of Prisons Superintendent Wayne Jackson who was gunned down outside his Malabar home on Tuesday night. The legislation will increase the severity of sentences to anyone who attacks any member under the National Security umbrella.

Prior to the media briefing, Young met with Police Commissioner Gary Griffith, acting Prisons Commissioner Dane Clarke, President of the Prisons Officers Association (POA) Ceron Richards and Chief of Defence Staff Commodore Hayden Pritchard.

Some of the proposals in the draft legislation is to have a $250,000 fine and 15 year jail sentence for anyone who threatens, obstructs or otherwise assaults a prison officer. Prison officers guilty of trafficking contraband face a $250,000 fine and ten year sentence. This is one of the steps that will be taken to curb attacks against prison officers.

Young said there will also be an inter-agency task force comprising of all arms of the national security: police, prisons, the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and the Defence Force to target criminals who operate in and outside prison and specifically those criminals who attack, threaten or obstruct national security agents, including prison officers.

Young said “criminals now will face a unified front” and not various national security forces operating in isolation of each other. Young said he met Jackson during a tour of the Maximum Security Prison and this officer was stamping out corruption in the prisons after he was promoted to acting superintendent in charge of the prison in February.

“Today is a dark day and out of that darkness we hope there will come some light and Mr Jackson’s life will not be lost in vain” Young said.

Young added that there will be a rejuvenated push back by one force going forward and the message will be “you touch one, you touch all of us.” He added that everything will be done to make sure there is an appropriate and sustained reaction going forward.

Outside of new legislation and a unified front of law enforcement, Young said that at Tuesday’s National Security Council meeting he was instructed by the Prime Minister to fast track two projects that have been on going for some time: video conferencing and re-vamping of remand yard at the Maximum Security Prison.

Prisons Commissioner Clarke said after meeting with the executive of the prison service he will decide if there will be an internal investigation to uncover whether Jackson’s own colleagues wanted him dead for his no-nonsense approach which saw prison officers being arrested and charged.

He added that the grabbers and jammers are in use but with advancing technology, the system needs to be upgraded, something Young said will be done but was not elaborated on further at the press conference.

With regard to prison officers having guns to protect themselves while off duty, Young said that was a matter discussed at the meeting, however, he said the clamour for a firearm is not always a solution since Jackson had a firearm at the time he was gunned down.

He added that notion is not being disregarded and is being considered for not only off duty prison officers but police and defence force as well. Richards said following the meeting he is confident that things will get better for his membership as the promise of legislation coming to Parliament is something he has been calling for for a while.