Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt wants Defence Force officers out of the centre because she doesnﾒt feel they are the right ones to provide security at the facility.
“Itﾒs a bad move to have them there,” the deputy prime minister told the Bahama Journal. “Iﾒve been fighting for a while to get them out of there.”
She noted that the officers are trained to be soldiers, not to guard detainees and itﾒs one reason why they continue to get blamed when there are reports of brutality at the facility.
Mrs. Pratt said there needs to be one security firm in charge of the centre which can set rules and procedures.
“People think National Security is responsible for the centre,” she said. “It is not.”
The security woes at the facility were underscored last Thursday when five Cuban men reportedly cut holes in fences at the centre and escaped. Officials said that approximately 20 Cuban men were actually trying to escape in the early morning hours that day.
It was the third time since April that officials said Cubans cut through the fences, but the deputy prime minister had refused to call the latest incident a failure in security.
“No. I donﾒt view it as a failure,” Mrs. Pratt said.
She added, “Things happen. We just have to try to work and try to move as we go along. All around the world people escape. The Bahamas is not new to this. Other countries that have the resources they have escapes, and so we are not perfect. We donﾒt have the kind of resources to do what we need to do. Certainly, weﾒre working at it and weﾒre doing the best that we can.”
Her colleague, Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, disagreed with her on the point of whether there was a security failure.
When asked whether there was a failure, Minister Gibson told the Bahama Journal, “absolutely”.
“Immigration decided that since weﾒre responsible for the administration and the place is not being secured as it should then we would supplement the security at the centre,” he said.
He also was asked whether he too wants the Defence Force out of the facility.
“Itﾒs not a matter if itﾒs the right agency,” Minister Gibson said. “Letﾒs say you use a private security firm and people were lousy and took bribes. Do you think it would make a difference? We shouldnﾒt be concentrating on what agency. We need to be concentrating on holding people accountable.”
After two Cuban women broke out of the facility in May, the Immigration minister took members of the press on a tour of the compound and announced that attack dogs had been brought in, and other security upgrades were being made.
But the Bahama Journal was able to confirm that only two of the four attack dogs were at the compound on Thursday morning when the incident was unfolding. Apparently, the operator of the agency that owns those dogs had recently clashed with the finance officer at the Department of Immigration over whether the department was authorized to pay him for the service.
She reportedly insisted it was not because there is no contract in place, and is now facing a transfer out of the department.
President of the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) John Pinder confirmed to the Journal over the weekend that he had received a complaint regarding the matter, and had been in contact with the Minister of Immigration in this regard.
Immigration officials had also promised after the May breakout that special security cameras would be put up, but more than a month later, that had not happened.
Minister Gibson said he recognized the urgency of having the cameras installed.
“I told them to go ahead and put the cameras up,” he said, referring to his officers. “We were waiting on bids, but I told them to forget the bids and go and sit down and negotiate with someone based on what we know the value of the job is.”
Government officials, meanwhile, could not say conclusively what the status is of former acting prison superintendent, Edwin Culmer, whose appointment as director of the detention centre was announced by the deputy prime minister more than a year ago.
Minister Gibson told the Bahama Journal that he has not seen Mr. Culmer since he became immigration minister in February, and he said he did not know what his role was.
Mr. Culmer is apparently still on the Ministry of National Securityﾒs payroll and is still living in the prison superintendentﾒs residence, but Mrs. Pratt said since Mr. Culmer was transferred to the Ministry of Immigration, she could not speak to his role.
“Heﾒs out of our hands,” she said.
Minister Gibson also pointed out that because Mr. Culmer is neither an Immigration nor a Defence Force official, he has no legal authority to give anyone at the centre any orders. He said the thinking at the time when Mr. Culmer was transferred was that he would have a private security staff of his own.
But that never happened.
Mr. Culmer has told the Bahama Journal that he has nothing to do with the Detention Centre and was never given any resources to do so.
Meanwhile, police have been investigating to try to determine whether the escapes from the centre this year were a part of an organised plan that may have involved bribes. Officials had indicated after past escapes that such investigations were taking place, but no results of investigations were ever released.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
