Acting Commissioner of Prisons, Deopersad Ramoutar has reassigned over two dozen prisons officers to the Port-of-Spain Prison to help manage the shortage of staff at the prison facility in the capital.
President of the Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon, was one of those who were transferred. Gordon was transferred from the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Facility and will pick up duty at the Port-of-Spain Prison tomorrow morning. Gordon’s transfer came just one day after he called for the immediate relocation of the Port-of-Spain Prison. Recently a fracas s at the Port-of-Spain Prison resulted in the injury to prisons officers and inmates.
An inmate subsequently died, after being hospitalized following the fracas.The T&T Police Service (TTPS) has started an investigation into the death of murder accused Sherlon Brown, who died several days after being injured in the fracas at the Port-of-Spain State Prison.
The probe, being conducted by detectives of the Port-of-Spain Criminal Investigations Department (CID). A release stated that five inmates and 17 prison officers were injured during the incident, which occurred around 11 am. “The injured inmates were taken to Port-of-Spain General Hospital for medical attention where they were treated and later discharged,” it said. Brown, who was reportedly in a coma when he was admitted at the hospital, died on Friday morning.
The transfers were a directive from Ramoutar. Gordon said he only received the instruction on Friday afternoon. Asked if he was given a reason for his transfer and if he felt it was connected to Thursday’s media conference, Gordon replied, “No reason. The timeline is weird, maybe.” During a media conference outside the prison on Thursday morning, Gordon described the facility as a dungeon, saying it has outlived its usefulness. Gordon also noted that it is 200 years old and faces many issues, including open fences.