The official did, however, admit that prison guards are taking some sort of industrial action at the Fox Hill facility
As reported in the Bahama Journal last Friday, hundreds of prison officers have for weeks been working on go-slow, decrying the deplorable conditions and understaffing at the facility.
But Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Mark Wilson said he is baffled that these concerns are the underlying reasons.
“This is completely new to me,” he said.
“Some of the functions of the prison are being brought into dysfunction as a result of what I understand is a work to rule. But that is a misnomer in itself. If you are on work to rule, there are certain prescribed rules within the prison system. If you are working along with those rules, then we ought not to have any dysfunction in the services of the prison.”
For years, the conditions under which the officers are expected to carry out their duties have been less than satisfactory. Overcrowding remains a poignant problem, there is an ongoing agitation for a risk allowance and some officers have complained that new recruits are not being properly placed.
They have also bemoaned the manual method used to discard human waste. However Mr. Wilson pointed out that this situation has been in existence for “more than half a century.”
When asked to explain why the problem has remained outstanding for so long, Mr. Wilson simply summed it up as a Bahamian heritage.
“Sometime in 1952, we decided that this is what a prison should be likeﾅ. Various Ministers of National Security have pursued the prospect of removing that kind of situation in Maximum Security. Six years ago, we went one step further of examining the prospect of placing water-bourne toilet facilities in that area and the result of that engineering study told us that we could not do it,” he said.
“We need a new facilityﾅBut the problem is that the government is faced with finding millions of dollars to build a prison. And in my view that is what has kept us in the present building for so long. How does a government explain using millions of dollars to build a prison when there are overcrowded schools?”
The National Security Minister has revealed plans to construct a new Maximum Security facility.
According to Mr. Wilson, the government has contracted a private architectural firm to work with the prison in the planning, design and development of that facility, an exercise that is “in progress.”
But while also a longstanding issue, understaffing is said to be one of the key reasons why prison guards are displaying reduced enthusiasm.
The Bahama Journal was told that at any given time, there are only about 23 persons working in the Maximum Security wing where there are more than 700 inmates.
At one point recently Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming acknowledged that while the prison should have an estimated 700 officers, there are only 409 guarding 1,510 prison inmates.
Officials say plans are well advanced for a contingent recruitment of 75 officers, reportedly twice as large as the normal recruitment class, during the month of August.
But the Bahama Journal has learnt that even with the additional manpower, prison officers are not been deployed to areas in which they are most needed like the Maximum Security wing.
According to Mr. Wilson there is short-term reason behind adopting this strategy.
“The problem is the prison has to implement a number of programmes in order to modernize the facility and move towards rehabilitative processes as opposed to simply locking down persons,” he said.
“And every single prison officer has bought into this. The way the processes are largely going to be put in place will call for a combination of career prison officers, who will carry out the technical aspect of things and civilians. But the process of bringing on civilians is even more complex than recruiting more prison officers. So the plan is to bring in an accelerated number of officers who could be placed in areas that are earmarked for civilians. We would then gradually release prison officers to do their duties.”
But the Permanent Secretary also admitted that while the objective is to complete the transition as quickly as possible, there is no timeline on when that may actually happen.
“The objective is to work towards feasibility. The civilization calls for people like sociologists, psychologists, etc. And unless I knew where I could go in this society to get them and knew that I could get them at a particular timeline, then I could not draw a timeline,” Mr. Wilson said.
Meantime yesterday prison officers began a three-day training exercise aimed at focusing on prison tactics and instruction as part of the ongoing Rhode Island State Partnership Programme.
The training features a Rhode Island Prison delegation along with an anti-terrorism expert and a professor form the University of Rhode Island.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
