There are concerns about the smuggling of illegal goods into the prisons of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Police Commissioner Colin John said he is working with the superintendent of prisons to correct the problem.
According to John, those who should ensure that prison laws are followed are often the ones who facilitate these practices.
“In most cases, prison officers facilitate these transactions. In fact, a prison officer was arrested just recently for an offence of that type. And it’s something that we must keep our eyes on and take steps to mitigate as much as possible”.
John explained that from time to time, members of the SSU and the RRU, along with the prison staff, would conduct impromptu searches of the prisons or certain cells.
“Recently, a cell phone was found in the cell of a popular prisoner. Two days later, his cell was searched again, and another phone was found”.
“In most cases, these prison officers facilitate and then you have situations where people throw things over the prison walls. In Kingstown, we have video surveillance systems in place to try and monitor these activities”.
“As far as possible, we are putting measures in place to mitigate these issues, as the inmates refer to these people as their contacts”.
The issue was discussed on WEFM’s issue at hand program on Sunday.
