- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 30/Jul 03:07

Vieira: Prisoners can’t be permanently detained in military facilities

INDEPENDENT Senator Anthony Vieira, SC, says high risk prisoners cannot be permanently detained in military facilities in Chaguaramas. He said this cannot be a permanent solution to problems in the prison system or to crime. He made this point in his contribution to debate in the Senate on July 29, on a motion to approve the Prisons (No. 2) Order, 2025. The House of Representatives passed this motion on July 28 which seeks to designate certain areas as prisons. Among those areas are TT Regiment headquarters at Teteron Barracks and the Coast Guard's main base at Staubles Bay. Both facilities are located in Chaguaramas. Vieira told senators the fact was not lost on him that 35 years since the July 27, 1990 attempted coup, Trinidad and Tobago is once again under a SoE. Referring to public statements from the government and the police for the rationale behind calling the SoE, Vieira said, "We are once again hearing about a plot to destabilise our beloved country." He added, "This time it is part of a planned prison break by a network of inmates, external criminal elements...involving at least...so it is said...at least six organised criminal gangs and complicit prison officers who have allegedly conspired to execute a large scale terror attack." This attack, Vieira continued, is "aimed at unleashing chaos and could cause casualties." He observed Parliament has been summoned out of its mid-year recess for extraordinary sittings to approve "the relocation of high risk prisoners to premises at Teteron Barracks and Staubles Bay in Chaguaramas." Given the information provided by government and the police on the serious of the threat being posed to the nation, Vieira was prepared to give "principled support" to this measure. He said the measure was not an overreach but a clear and necessary response to avert the danger in question. But Vieira added, "Support does not preclude scrutiny and it certainly does not mean that we as legislators should forego our duty to interrogate the implication of what we are being asked to approve." He said the temporary detention of dangerous criminals in military facilities in Chaguaramas is not new and cited the case of infamous crime boss Dole Chadee as an example. Vieira told senators, military bases are not designed to function as prisons nor are its personnel trained to operate as prisons officers. He warned the transfer of high risk inmates out of existing prisons to military facilities raises serious questions about the ability of prisons to safely house inmates. Vieira also cautioned there is nothing to stop the same perceived corruption of officers in the Prison Service infiltrating the ranks of the TT Defence Force (TTDF) which includes the Regiment and Coast Guard) or inmates housed at military facilities getting inside information on TTDF operations. Vieira said, "This measure must not be indefinite. The relocation high risk prisoners to military facilities should be treated as a stop-gap measure not a permanent fixture." He added, "The measures that we are approving today are based on certain exigencies." Vieira said, "There is a crisis that we are trying to avoid and currently the threat level is high." He repeated, "This must not be a permanent solution to what may be a temporary situation." In the long term, Vieira continued, a dedicated, non-military supervised prison facility should be built for high-risk inmates. He suggested Carrera Island or some other secure place which is removed from the established prison system as possible locations for this facility. Vieira said the SoE and the circumstances which led to it, must also be seen as symptomatic of a longstanding call for penal reform. He hoped this would be something government will address as it seeks to reduce crime. Vieira lamented that prisons over time have become warehouses to store people rather than places to rehabilitate them back into society. He told senators the public must be reminded of the important role which the prison service plays as a part of the criminal justice system. The post Vieira: Prisoners can’t be permanently detained in military facilities appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.