BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A cellular phone was recently discovered within the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) during a search by Police and Prison Officers with a newly-acquired specialised equipment.
According to Police Press and Public Relations Officer Sergeant Stephen Hector, a joint team comprising Delta Squad and Prison Officers conducted a search of HMP with a focus on detecting cellular phones and other communication devices.
“During the search,” the PRO stated, “one cellular phone was detected with the use of a specialised equipment.”
Hector noted that as a result of credible intelligence gathered over the past six months, Commissioner of Police Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn had sought to acquire the specialised equipment for use by officers of the force and that some of them had recently arrived in the Federation.
He also noted that more of such equipment is scheduled to arrive shortly.
“As a result of this find, an investigation has commenced to identify all persons and methods involved and used in achieving this security breach,” he said.
The PRO also said that the Commissioner wishes to assure the general public that all efforts would be employed to ensure and maintain not only an improvement of the standard of investigations, but “also to ensure that witnesses are better insulated from possible actions of persons in custody as we continue to take back our streets”.
This is not the first time information has been made public concerning the use of cellular phones in HMP.
Chief Prison Officer Alton Liburd, during his Jail Delivery Report at the closing of the January Criminal Assizes on Thursday, March 31, 2011, was asked by the jury what were the most prevalent contrabands smuggled into the prison.
In response, Liburd told the court that marijuana, cigarettes and cellular phones are the items predominantly smuggled into the correctional facility.
Internationally, and also regionally, cellular phones and a number of other communication devices are smuggled into prisons and are often used to order killings on the outside.
According to an article in the Jamaica Observer, headlined “Deadly ‘cells’ – Hits still being ordered from prisons” and dated Sunday, December 5, 2010, “At least four police commanders in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine said their jobs are being made harder by incarcerated gangsters who use smuggled cellphones to order murders from behind bars.”
Quoting Superintendent Derrick ‘Cowboy’ Knight, head of the Half-Way-Tree Police Station, the Observer wrote, “There was a killing about a month-and-a-half ago in which we understand that a [man] called from prison and gave instructions for the murder of a man on Omara Road. This is just one case, but it happens very frequently.”
The Jamaican daily also addressed the issue of cellular phones smuggling into prisons, noting that Deputy Commissioner of Corrections Campbell claimed that inmates go to ingenious lengths to conceal cellular phones as well as seeking the assistance of rogue correctional officers through bribery.
“We found one that was inside a rock cake (a type of rough pastry). A hole had been cut in this large rock cake and the cellphone stuffed inside,” said Campbell. “The warder noticed he (the inmate) had this rock cake for several days without eating it. When they checked, they found the cellphone inside.”
The Observer also reported in an earlier edition in 2010 that female inmates at the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre in St. Catherine were found concealing cellular phones in their vaginas.
The newspaper further reported that Campbell confirmed that male prisoners also conceal cellular phones in their body cavities.
