BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OFFICERS at Her Majesty’s Prison are now breathing easier following the discovery of over 200 illegal items in the facility. And according to a senior officer, the discovery would to a large degree eliminate the quick passage of information to inmates from the outside.
This belief in the passage of information is rooted in the fact that the morning after the night a homicide is committed in the Federation, some inmate will congregate in groups to discuss the incident, especially when it involves a gang member.
According to Chief Prison Officer Denzil Harris, whenever a murder occurs the prisoners would be readily informed, owing to the use of illegal mobile devices recently found within the prison walls.
“Every time a murder or a serious crime occurs on the outside it affects us inside of the prison. Morning times are when you have to be on guard, because that is when you see the teams start to gather and discuss what took place the night before on the outside. So you have to be better prepared.”
He made that comment, among others, during a press conference on Monday (Feb. 22) at Her Majesty’s Prison, where hundreds of contraband items, including 125 cell phones and a large number of improvised weapons, were shown to members of the media.
Harris pointed out that his officers are always on the lookout for group activities, since a number of stabbing incidents had occurred in the past within the correctional facility.
“So you have to be better prepared internally,” he said, “That used to catch us off-guard before! But because of experience we are now more prepared...as long as we are present there is deterrence from that.”
In response to how inmates would have acquired information of killings on the outside, Harris said it was through the use of the cell phones that were confiscated during a recent search of the facility.
He declared that “they would know before us,” that such an incident had occurred and that would have caught us off-guard on a number of occasions.
Questioned on prisoners’ access to television, the Chief Prison Officer exclaimed: “We control it (TV)! Most of the times now they watch CNN and any sport discipline - basketball, cricket and those preferences than any movies.”
Her Majesty’s Prison was constructed in 1840 to house 60 inmates but the recently-appointed Superintendent of Prisons, Junie Hodge, revealed that the facility now accommodates 208 prisoners - 203 males and five females.
