BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WHILE prison can be defined as a place of confinement or involuntary restraint for individuals awaiting trial or sentenced after conviction, in some quarters it is said to be “The University of Crime”.
Like the definition, the saying also holds true especially in overcrowded penitentiaries the world over, as many people are induced to crime by either seasoned criminals or gang members serving lengthy terms.
Someone once said: “You go in as a freshman studying for your undergraduate in Shoplifting and come out with a PhD in Counterfeiting and Extortion.”
There is evidence that seasoned criminals within the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) in St. Kitts and Nevis do influence some first-timers and even regulars. They teach them how to go about committing certain crimes and also how to defend themselves in a court of law.
Do not ever underrate the level of intelligence some inmates posses…they are brilliant.
Their brilliance however led to the find of 19 cellular phones, a quantity of cellular phone batteries and a number of illegal items, including screwdrivers, within the cells and all public spaces accessed by the inmates.
The find was realised through a joint task force surprise search conducted by officers of HMP, the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force and personnel from Her Majesty’s Custom and Excise Department on the morning of Sunday (Aug. 2).
According to an SKNIS press release, Acting Superintendent of Prisons Ashiela Connor said that the prison regularly conducts searches of inmates and the facilities, adding that searches are conducted every time a prisoner leaves and re-enters the facility from outside work or other business.
Reportedly, Connor however stated that detailed searches, like the one carried out last Sunday, are done periodically.
He cautioned that “persons caught introducing contraband into the prison can face prosecution” and prisoners found with contraband could face disciplinary actions.
This is not the first time information has been made public concerning the use of cellular phones in HMP.
In March 2012, a cellular phone was discovered during a search by Police and Prison Officers with what the then Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Sergeant Stephen Hector, claimed to be “a newly-acquired specialised equipment”.
Hector stated that the officers had focused on detecting cellular phones and other communication devices and that “one cellular phone was detected with the use of a specialised equipment”.
He declared that the specialised equipment was procured by then Commissioner of Police Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn for use by members of the Police Force.
Prior to that revelation, during his Jail Delivery Report at the closing of the January Criminal Assizes on Thursday, March 31, 2011, Chief Prison Officer Alton Liburd 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 dated Sunday, December 5, 2010 and headlined ‘Deadly ‘cells’ – Hits still being ordered from prisons’: “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 had confirmed that male prisoners also conceal cellular phones in their body cavities.
It is alleged that rogue Prison Officers assist inmates in acquiring communication devices, illegal drugs and even weapons of various sorts.
In CARICOM member state Guyana, a Chief Prison Officer of the Georgetown Prison was on the night of Saturday, August 1, 2015 arrested for allegedly being in possession of 240 grammes of marijuana, 12 packets of cigarettes and one cellular phone.
Reports coming out of the South American country stated that the Chief Prison Officer was searched one day after he was told by a senior officer that he had received information about his alleged illegal activities.
Sources said the alleged discovery of the items in the Chief Prison Officer’s working bag was made shortly after he had searched junior members of the prison service.
On March 26, 2015 a Prison Officer in Guyana was sentenced to four years imprisonment for trafficking narcotics in the Georgetown Prison. He was on January 12 of the same year caught in the prison with 30 grammes of marijuana.
Before him, another officer was sentenced on January 15, 2015 to serve six months in the prison within which he worked. He was allegedly found with 30 grammes of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, eight packs of cigarettes and a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, both of which are prohibited articles.
While he denied the drug trafficking charge, he confessed to taking two packs of cigarettes into the prison.
The prosecutor however told the Court that when the Prison Officer was searched by an Assistant Superintendent of Police on the day in question, he was found with one pack of Bristol cigarettes in his right-side pants pocket and another in his right side-side shirt pocket while six packs were stashed in his crotch.
And in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a recent jailbreak had led investigators to question a number of individuals, including Prison Officers.
On Friday, July 24, 2015, three inmates, Allan ‘Scanny’ Martin, Hassan Atwell and Christopher ‘Monster’ Selby shot their way out of the Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain Prison.
In their escape bid, a Police Constable was shot and subsequently died while undergoing surgery. He was shot while seated in the front passenger seat of a police vehicle as he and two of his colleagues were conducting sentry duty outside the prison at the time.
Shortly after their bid for freedom, Martin was killed by police in a guard booth at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, while Atwell was shot dead in east Port-of-Spain the following day, allegedly by rival gang members, and Selby surrendered to police on Sunday, July 26.
It was reported that the three men were allegedly given the firearms during a “special visit” session in the Visitor’s Room of the prison, from which they had emerged with guns blazing.
The situation at Her Majesty’s Prison begs answers to the following questions:
1. How thorough are those searches of inmates who leave and re-enter the facility on a regular basis?
2. Were the prison authorities issued with some of those specialised equipment acquired by former Commissioner Walwyn?
3. The walls on the western and northern sides of the prison are not as high as those at the Georgetown Prison. However, on February 23, 2002, five prisoners escaped from the Georgetown Prison after shooting a female Prison Officer to her head with a gun that was thrown over the wall and a male Prison Officer was stabbed to death by one of the escapees. Therefore, taking this incident into consideration, are regular checks made during both recreational and ‘lockdown’ periods to observe if objects were thrown over the walls of the facility?
4. Are CCTVs placed above the walls to observe any suspicious movement, such as the throwing of objects/items within the facility?
5. Are detailed searches made of visitors before meeting with prisoners?
6. Are prisoners thoroughly searched after visitations?
7. Are visitations supervised and scrutinised?
8. Are instruments of the Rehabilitation Group Impression thoroughly checked whenever members of the band return from engagements outside of the facility?
The prison authorities must however be complimented for the initiative taken, but this media house would like to suggest that body crevices must also be searched, if this system is not already in place.
Conclusively, it is said that every man has a price. Therefore, the biggest question is: “Are all officers working at Her Majesty’s Prison honest?”
C
