- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 03:12

Building 13’s secrets

ACUTE are the problems of our prisons. The spectacular failure of the 2018 move to isolate the most dangerous remandees by placing them in Building 13 at the Maximum Security Prison, Arouca, was, because of wider systemic vulnerabilities, preordained. Instead of making criminals weaker, the experiment strengthened them. The state of emergency now called because of the reach of these culprits is an incomplete measure. Authorities have disrupted the criminal syndicate; but what they have disturbed they must now break. To say the Building 13 move backfired is an understatement. According to the details of a deeply sourced Sunday Newsday report of July 27, that step, taken during the tenure of then national security minister Stuart Young, was meant to get a handle on networks operating from behind bars. Instead, things spiralled out of control. Hitherto feuding rivals amalgamated. A powerful syndicate formed. Inmates took control: the ordering of murderous hits on prison officers left jail administration demoralised and compliant. With law enforcement being targeted and the reach of crooks growing, murders moved from 495 in 2017 to 536 in 2019 (the highest-ever tally of 625 came in 2024). All of it was just the start. A plot was hatched to unleash a reign of terror in 2025 to coincide with July 27’s 35th anniversary of the attempted coup. Confirming the alarming reach of the criminal syndicate behind top cop Allister Guevarro’s decision to recommend a state of emergency is Attorney General John Jeremie’s disclosure on July 28 that even after several inmates of the maximum security facility were freshly rehoused, newly designated prison facilities were “infiltrated by two drones.” Mr Jeremie is correct in suggesting this situation is a cancer. Yet his own disclosure lays bare the need not only to remove the malignancy but also to apply strong radiotherapy. The consensus reached in the House of Representatives this week on the need to extend the state of emergency is a sign that the political will to do so may be present. But wider must be the efforts of the state. For starters, prison officers are under duress and need more than just words. Disclosures about flat-screen TVs by Defence Minister Wayne Sturge have not helped, judging from the cynical and weary response of prison association president Gerard Gordon. In this regard, the fundamental lesson of the Building 13 fiasco, as complex as it was, is simple: just moving prisoners around is not enough. If the state does not address things like the funding that allows criminals access to drones, the blackmailing and corruption of law enforcement officers of all stripes, the overcrowding of cells and the permeability of prison walls, it is spinning top in mud. Attorney General John Jeremie, SC, in his contribution in Parliament to extend the state of emergency for three months on July 28, said newly designated prison facilities were “infiltrated by two drones.” The post Building 13’s secrets appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.