President of the Prison Officers Association, Gerard Gordon said he and other officers did not have very high expectations for the budget presentation today.
In an interview with GML, he noted that the prison service has been fraught with various deficiencies and operational challenges for years.
He pointed to their inadequate supply of uniforms and deteriorating infrastructure, and also lamented that the service had the oldest fleet of vehicles out of all arms of the protective services and were given “second-hand” vehicles for use.
“We’re getting used vehicles from other sections that we have to be patching up, so it’s a ridiculous situation. There’s so much to say as it relates to those failings and I don’t know how to explain it, but it seems as if we don’t exist for the state and it continues to hamper our ability to truly deliver our mandate to the public,” Gordon said.
“So it would appear that where crime and criminality is concerned, we’re failing at the front and we’re failing at the back end by the lack of support from the state.”