Covid19 cluster at Carrera grows, dorms in lockdown

A FORMER inmate at Carrera Prison has expressed deep concern about the handling of covid19 on the island and its demoralising impact on inmates, whose already limited freedoms, he said, have been further restricted.

The ex-prisoner was released from the island earlier this year, but remains involved in inmate rehabilitation and is frequently in touch with them. He asked not to be identified but freely relayed the inmates' concerns.

He painted a picture of prisoners being exposed to the virus, despite a complete dormitory lockdown.

"It's like solitary (confinement)," he told Newsday, saying it is unlike a regular quarantine, in which people can still enjoy certain privileges, like having contact with family.

"They are sleeping in fives and if one of the five get corona, which is happening (all must contract it)."

Around 26 inmates from Carrera are believed to be at the Couva hospital, and about 50 at the Claxton Bay step-down facility. Several other inmates were recently transferred from Carrera to the Golden Grove prison, he said, mostly because of a shortage of prison officers.

That leaves, he estimates, approximately 200 inmates in Carrera at present.

Earlier this month, Newsday reported that there were said to be some 34 covid19 cases on the island.

Inmates apparently view the prison authorities' handling of testing, quarantine and transfer of inmates as haphazard.

Insufficient testing

The former inmate, who last spoke with Newsday on Saturday, said, "Every two days they coming and testing and finding a man sick and they just taking out the sick man and leaving the rest of them without testing them.

"If five men sharing a (small space) and one man have covid, obviously the rest have covid," he said, even if they initially receive a negative result.

"There is no way they would not be in contact in those small cells. It's a total lock down."

He said there were 60 men in his dorm when he left Carrera.

"Right now it has about half that amount... Next dorm had about 40 and right now there are only have about 12 men remaining."

Newsday reached both Commissioner of Prisons Dennis Pulchan and president of the Prisons Officers Association Ceron Richards, both of whom said they were not willing to discuss the situation in the prisons.

Therefore it is unclear how many, if any, prison officers currently have the virus or are in quarantine.

Prison commissioner: No outbreak, a cluster

When Newsday spoke with Pulchan about the rise in cases in the prison earlier in August, he assured, "It is not an outbreak (but) a cluster."

Although Newsday has not been able to confirm exact numbers of inmates and officers with the virus or in quarantine, the former inmate said a batch of officers on duty at any one time has shrunk to between seven and ten, about half of whom he said are responsible for administrative duties, which means there is an inappropriate ratio of inmates to officers.

He suspects the arrival of a large search team on the island less than two months ago brought along the case that resulted in an outbreak.

"Everybody was fine there. I leave in February and have a bredren leave (in June), and when he leave everything was good and he tell me that they bring a search party up there.

"I know that kind of search – they bring ten-20 officers with dogs and everything, and after that search he say they bring that virus on the island. The next week, everybody start to complain and they start to hospitalise men."

The prison, he said, recently transferred 90 men for various reasons. Some went to Golden Grove.

He said since practically all inmates would be considered primary contacts with those with covid, they have been put in quarantine and have their already limited rights further restricted.

He suggested since the virus would have only come from outside Carrera, one or more of the prison officers would have had to transmit it to the inmates.

Inmates were previously taken to Port of Spain for family visitation. This was replaced with virtual calls, which, too, have apparently ceased.

The former inmate said the prisoners have been unable to even make scheduled calls to their families for some time.

Debate club put on pause

Debbie Jacob, a Newsday columnist well known for her activism on prison reform, normally works with inmates at Carrera and was in the process of restarting a debate club for prisoners, when she said she received a registered letter from Pulchan advising that she would not be allowed to communicate with an inmate via Zoom, as requested, apparently in light of "restrictions being enforced for security and health purposes."

Jacob said it was strange receiving a registered letter rather than being told orally by the commissioner about the restriction, particularly given her strong relationship with the prisons.

"It says things (with covid19) are very serious," she said.

Zoom calls normally take place from the prison library, but it appears all video calls have stopped, since the inmates are almost completely confined.

The Ministry of Health recently prioritised some 3,700 doses of the covid19 vaccine for prisons through the ministries of heath and national security.

Asked about the general stance on vaccines in the prisons, the former inmate told Newsday, "Nobody taking them the moment. Vaccines are a no-no in the prisons. Everybody against that vaccine thing."

In his comments earlier in August, Pulchan lamented the lack of faith among inmates in the vaccine's efficacy.

"It's they themselves that do not wish to take the vaccine," he said. "Now that it hit home, I'm hoping that good sense prevails, because I have made all these vaccines available to provide this opportunity for them."

Prison shouldn't be a death sentence

"Carrera is the best prison in the world," said the unidentified former inmate.

While that is obviously not factual, he explained why it is the best prison in the country, which actually serves a perceptible purpose: to rehabilitate inmates.

"If you going to prison, you want to go to Carrera," he said.

"The difference between Carrera and MSP (Maximum Security Prison) are the walls," he explained. There are opportunities to learn and do trades at other prisons but those things mean little when an inmate is surrounded by high walls and feels a sense of hopelessness. He said this is counterproductive.

On the contrary, inmates can almost grasp freedom at Carrera. They feel a purpose and come out better people than they went in, something that cannot be considered the norm in other local prisons.

"(Inmates) have a view of the sea, the ocean," he said. Sports, especially football and cricket, are part of the prison's culture but because of the lockdown, those too have halted.

Prisoners who were engaged in trades, training and educational exercises at the prison also would have had those activities stopped.

"There are a lot of men who want to come back there (to continue their work). Those are the healthy men they moved out fast so they don't get the virus.

"That was an all-right move," he said. "But they have to continue that move and find the final (people) who had symptoms, who had primary and secondary contact, then send them off and sanitise the place. They need to clean out Carrera. They need to keep about 100 men and I believe they can filter them back in when they clean it, sanitise (completely), make sure everybody is covid-free."

The problem, he said, is, "where they send inmates, it will be crowded, too, because they naturally have a problem with overcrowding in all prisons."

Almost a decade ago, the sitting government announced that Carrera would be mothballed (use discontinued but the site maintained) by the end of 2013. There has been little development in that plan, but current inmates and rehabilitated ex-convicts largely seem to want parts like the dorms made over so that it can continue to be used as an example for local prisons.