For their own safety, prisons officers are reportedly considering leaving the profession or staying and becoming rogue officers, Prisons Officers Association (POA) secretary Gerard Gordon said yesterday. This comes in the wake of the murder of their colleague Fitzalbert Victor Jr on Monday, he said. Since the killing, a number of officers said they intend to resign.
Gordon said several officers have sought to access the service’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for counselling. According to police reports, Victor, an officer for the past ten years, was killed because of his no nonsense approach to his job. His death may have been an order coming out of the Port-of-Spain prison where he worked, police also believe.
Victor was killed around 6 am on Monday as he was about to clean his Nissan Xtrail beneath his home at Prizgar Lands, Laventille. He will be cremated tomorrow following a procession from Caura Junction at 1 pm to Belgrove’s Funeral Home, Tacarigua. Today there will be a public viewing at the Eddie Hart Ground, Tacarigua, at 5 pm.
Earlier yesterday, following a midday meeting with officers attached to the prison on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, Gordon told the media he too was willing to pack up if things are not addressed seriously at the level of the government. “I ready already. I looking to press. This work not making sense. I have to live. The jail is not the centre of the universe you know,” Gordon said.
“We continue to say the people who work in the Trinidad and Tobago Prisons Service, is not that they do not have options you know, this is a choice and if you have people choosing to serve it is only fair you seek after their best interests. That’s all we are saying.”
POA president Ceron Richards said if nothing meaningful was done or a time frame given to address the officers’ fears, his members may be forced to strike.
“An all out strike is very likely. The mere fact I am here, summoned by my officers to have this exercise today, signals they are not satisfied with the response of the Government,” Richards said. He criticised the statement of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that he would be redoubling efforts to address the concerns of the prisons officers.
He said: “When the Prime Minister says he is going to double efforts to ensure prisons officers are protected what is he talking about? As far as the association is concerned and our members, the efforts in the past is zero and if the Prime Minister is to double zero, zero multiply by two is zero.”
He asked: “So what efforts is he speaking about? Is he talking about getting all of our officers out of high risk areas? Is he talking about a policy to treat with prisons officers’ safety and security?
“Is he talking about the $1 million proposed insurance which was promised to us for so long? Is he talking about that? What is he talking about? He needs to be very specific. We are not in the business of taking political rhetoric.”
Richards added that Rowley’s comment was a “vague statement” fit only for a political platform, noting, for example, that attempts to get about 50 prisons officers out of crime hot spots to safer housing communities had not been considered by Housing Minister Marlene McDonald.
He said his association was not going to let up until its demands were met. They include safe housing and allowing some officers to carry home their service weapons.