- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Aujourd'hui 03:25

Griffith: SoE prisoner removal a surrender to criminals

FORMER commissioner of police (CoP) Gary Griffith has expressed concern that the decision to relocate inmates from prisons to military facilities at Teteron Barracks and Staubles Bay in Chaguaramas during the state of emergency (SoE), represents a surrender to the criminals. Griffith is also a former national security minister and a former captain in the TT Regiment, one of the arms of the TT Defence Force (TTDF). In a statement on July 19, Griffith said, "The biggest concern of all was the decision to virtually surrender to the criminal elements by removing prisoners from our prisons and having them transferred to a military base to have our own Guantanamo Bay." Guantanamo Bay is a US naval base built in the southern part of Cuba in 1898. A detention camp was built there in 2002 to hold terrorism suspects and "illegal enemy combatants" during the "war on terror" following the September 11, 2001, attack in the US. Griffith said, "That signals defeat, as well as showing the inability of our Prison Service and TTPS (TT Police Service) to do their job, and the inability to secure prisoners where they belong." He recalled facing a similar challenge during his tenure as CoP but he did "not panic and run to politicians to call an SoE." After doing a tactical appreciation, and analysing the situation, Griffith said, "I utilised TTPS funds, and refurbished a wing in the prison in Golden Grove." Specific high-profile prisoners, he continued, were moved to this wing, as the police received the reports of these prisoners having easy access to phones and using rogue prison officers to send messages outside, including calling hits. "That wing was littered with installed CCTVs (closed circuit television cameras), which was monitored by police, army, and prison officials, as well as private security, via a command centre." Griffith said three layers of security involving several soldiers, police and prison officers being on duty at the same to limit entries and exits of people and objects to and from this wing. "This ensured that not even a matchstick could enter or leave as there were three law enforcement layers, so the guards were guarding the guards." Griffith repeated all this was done without an SoE. "Due to this, all communication by these prisoners with the outside world ended and there was no need to have signalled defeat and moved the prisoners to a military base." Griffith also repeated his concern about the way the police hierarchy responded to an alleged threat by criminal elements inside and outside of the prison system to kill several people, including law enforcement officers and members of the justice system. He said CoP Allister Guevarro could not put out a media release to "recommend" calling an SoE without the government. "What if the Government said no? It was wrong." Griffith said either Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar or Attorney General John Jeremie, SC, should have been the first people to chair a news conference on the SoE. Guevarro held a news conference on the SoE around 10.30 am on July 18. Jeremie had a briefing two hours later. Persad-Bissessar held no news conference but issued a statement after Jeremie's briefing. Griffith said, "To hear a CoP state that he immediately went to see the Prime Minister and AG, and not his line minister (Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander), shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the chain of command." He added that "to put so much information in a media statement, alluding to prisoners having access and control to call hits on prominent public officials and law enforcement officers, was totally uncalled for." Griffith said, "All this did was ensure it could cripple our tourism, trade, and potential investments" Additionally, he continued, it just increased fear throughout the country. "All that was required was to state that, based on an intelligence report, there was a clear and present danger affecting national security, and an SoE was recommended. Full stop." The post Griffith: SoE prisoner removal a surrender to criminals appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.