Commissioner: No crisis in prison service

Prisons Commissioner Gerard Wilson has said while the prison service could do with additional funding from the Ministry of National Security to run the eight prisons and the Youth Training Centre, he is mindful of the national revenue shortfall and has been using innovative means to get by.

Commissioner Wilson has a budget to run the prison service. However, the prison has a sub accounting unit which has to seek approval through the Ministry of National security for the purchase of items”.

He said he has received some releases since the 2018/2019 fiscal package was passed in Parliament and he has been using the money given to buy food for prisoners and has even been stretching the money to pay utility bills.

“What we are doing is being creative. This is not to say we are not suffering the same fate as other ministries, (but) we are not complaining, we are using creative methods to keep institutions running. We have been paying and distributing money accordingly, We could always do with some more money."

So he said the situation could not be called a crisis.

"We are managing. Everything is in order. Inmates are being fed, some of our utility bills being paid. We are trying to stretch the money.”

The prison population averages 4,000 and the releases from by the Ministry of National Security are being spent mainly on critical items for the prison service.

Sources said prison officers' salaries are paid through the Ministry of Finance.

Sources also said government’s promise to buy guns for prison officers whose lives have been threatened have been put on hold because of the decline in revenue. Minister of National Security Stuart Young had promised that the guns would be bought for officers who had been clamouring for personal weapons in the wake of the murders of some of their colleagues.

Late last year Newsday was told the ministry was trying to procure the guns.