Chester Sam­bra­no

News­gath­er­ing Ed­i­tor

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

Vi­o­lence broke out at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in Arou­ca yes­ter­day, re­sult­ing in the death of one in­mate and in­juries to two oth­ers. Au­thor­i­ties have con­firmed the in­ci­dent was a gang-re­lat­ed al­ter­ca­tion in­volv­ing im­pro­vised weapons. The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice con­firmed the in­mate was stabbed to death dur­ing the clash. He was lat­er iden­ti­fied as Brent Bap­tiste.

A for­mal state­ment from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice de­scribed the in­ci­dent as a “fra­cas” in­volv­ing in­mates af­fil­i­at­ed with ri­val gangs. The con­fronta­tion es­ca­lat­ed quick­ly, with im­pro­vised weapons re­port­ed­ly be­ing used. The in­ci­dent oc­curred in­side the prison com­pound, which hous­es some of the coun­try’s most high-risk in­mates. It is the largest and most se­cure cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ty in T&T.

Prison au­thor­i­ties said the Emer­gency Re­sponse Unit was ac­ti­vat­ed and re­spond­ed prompt­ly, restor­ing or­der and con­tain­ing the sit­u­a­tion with­in a short time. Video record­ings that cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia ap­peared to show in­mates chas­ing one in­di­vid­ual and at­tempt­ing to as­sault him. In an­oth­er clip, a group of in­mates ap­peared to seize a man and car­ry him away. The videos, which have not been of­fi­cial­ly ver­i­fied, have drawn pub­lic at­ten­tion and raised ques­tions about the cir­cu­la­tion of record­ing de­vices with­in the prison.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Car­los Cor­raspe said the de­ceased in­mate’s next of kin had been no­ti­fied, and con­do­lences were ex­tend­ed on be­half of the Prison Ser­vice. He added that two oth­er in­mates re­quired fur­ther med­ical treat­ment, and no in­juries were re­port­ed among prison staff.

Cor­raspe said se­cu­ri­ty pro­to­cols had been re­viewed and re­in­forced across all cor­rec­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent. “The in­sti­tu­tion is back to a state of nor­mal­cy,” he said in a state­ment re­leased Sat­ur­day af­ter­noon. The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, in­clud­ing per­son­nel from the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tion De­part­ment and the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tion, re­spond­ed to the in­ci­dent and are con­duct­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Mem­bers of the In­ter-Agency Task Force and the Guard and Emer­gency Branch al­so re­spond­ed and re­mained on-site to as­sist with main­tain­ing se­cu­ri­ty.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Suzette Mar­tin said a full-scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the vi­o­lence, and those re­spon­si­ble will be held ac­count­able. “This is a deeply trou­bling in­ci­dent. The safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the Trinidad and To­ba­go prison is a mat­ter of na­tion­al con­cern, and we are work­ing close­ly with the Prison Ser­vice to pre­vent any re­cur­rence. My thoughts are with the fam­i­ly of the de­ceased and all those af­fect­ed.”

She said ad­di­tion­al po­lice of­fi­cers re­main on site as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues, while the prison re­mains on lock­down. Prison of­fi­cials have not pro­vid­ed de­tails on how weapons may have been ob­tained or whether any ad­di­tion­al in­mates may face dis­ci­pli­nary or crim­i­nal charges as a re­sult of the in­ci­dent.

Gon­za­les: I am sat­is­fied that the mat­ter is un­der full con­trol

When con­tact­ed by Guardian Me­dia, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les said, “Hav­ing spo­ken to both Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er and the Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, I am sat­is­fied that the mat­ter is un­der full con­trol by both the Pris­ons and the TTPS.”

Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion: We are se­vere­ly un­der­staffed

Com­ment­ing on this lat­est in­ci­dent, Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don lament­ed that the ser­vice is “se­vere­ly un­der­staffed.” He said the com­plaints of of­fi­cers con­tin­ue to be ig­nored as it re­lat­ed to man­pow­er, in­fra­struc­ture, and a lack of equip­ment and train­ing.

“We want to do the best we can but are se­vere­ly hin­dered,” he said.

On Wednes­day, a loaded gun was dis­cov­ered at the MSP dur­ing a po­lice ex­er­cise. Af­ter the ex­er­cise, con­duct­ed be­tween 12 noon and 7.30 pm, of­fi­cers re­cov­ered one 9 mm pis­tol with sev­en rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion, sev­en cell phones, and ten im­pro­vised weapons.