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Guest
Prisons Officers Association president Ceron Richards called on citizens to reflect on whether the $60 billion-plus spent on national security over the past decade has made their lives any safer.
Addressing trade unionists at Avocat Junction, Fyzabad ahead of the yesterday’s annual Labour Day march, Richards said that it appeared that a chunk of the annual national security budget had gone to private businesses, including the $80m bill to transport prisoners to and from the courts.
While that was taking place, he said, the prisons were falling apart and prison officers were suffering under unworkable conditions.
Richards said that the Carrera Island Prison was without water, lights and a vessel to transport officers to and from the mainland.
Since 2013, he said, the association has been begging for a proper alarm system from the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, which would have cost the Ministry $4.5 million dollars.
He said in Tobago, very soon the prison would fall into the sea and although land had been allocated for the construction of a new prison, there had been no word from the State as to when construction would begin.