Any and everyone entering the gates at Her Majesty's Prison would be subjected to airport-like procedures as the Fox Hill jail is on a drive to beef up security.
Come Monday, all visitors, inmates and staff entering the jail compound will be required to undergo extensive searches in a bid to get a handle on smuggled goods that were once able make their way through the gates. What was once the new gate house at the Fox Hill jail has undergone a $100,000 complete, state-of-the-art, walk-through and baggage scanning equipment revamping aimed at stopping contraband at the source before it reaches the prison compound.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt was on hand yesterday to officially open the new Security Processing Centre at Her Majesty's Prison. "Just as you would find at any airport or at any modern penal facility for that matter," she said. "Everyone entering Her Majesty's Prisons from now on would be subjected to airport-like security protocols."
The Fox Hill jail has been tangled in a web of controversy since the deadly January 17 prison break out brought prison security issues to the forefront.
But DPM Pratt said that despite those tragic events – which left Prison Officer Deon Bowles and one of four escapees, Neil Brown dead– there has been a dramatic decline in violence at the prison whether from staff to inmate, inmate to inmate or inmate to staff. She added that this is just one of the areas where security at the prison has been visibly strengthened. "It is to be noted that over a 12-year period, 1994 to 2005, there were forty escapes from Her Majesty's Prisons – an average of 3.3 escapes per year," she said. "Indeed so far this year based on an average daily inmate population of 1500 the four escapes from prison itself so far this year represent a 0.3 per cent escape rate. And so yes, the prison is fulfilling its role of protecting society."
The DPM added that it has been proven that most of the escapes were facilitated by contraband that was able to weasel its way into the prison and to the inmates.
But even as the prison drafts in high-powered technology to assist them, she reminded the officers that modern technology is only as good as the integrity human beings place behind it. "It is important, therefore, for officers who guard the gateway to the prison to show themselves at all times to be above reproach; indeed above suspicion," she said. "Temptations will come our way; resist it…we must be uncompromising in our efforts to transform Her Majesty's Prison into a correctional facility."
She added that although the relevant agencies have not yet found a formula to ensure that security lapses are entirely a thing of the past, their unflinching goal is to make sure that lapses are few and far, as "we will fortify and secure this facility to the extent that the thought of introducing contraband or escaping would be readily dismissed."
By: IANTHIA SMITH, The Nassau Guardian
