PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government says it will decommission the Port of Spain Prison built in 1757 and will transfer all existing prisoners to the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Arouca, east of here.
Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, speaking after the weekly Cabinet meeting on Thursday evening, said that the decision was taken to decommission the 268-year-old268-year-old building, which the courts have condemned as being unfit for housing prisoners.
“Courts have reportedly condemned this facility, which has been unfit for housing prisoners, and has cost the state millions of dollars(One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in damages for breaches of the constitutional rights of persons,” Alexander told reporters.
“When you come into Trinidad and Tobago, on arrival here, and you get to the city, people take you to the prison. They often ask you, ‘You have persons in there?’ and the answer is yes,” Alexander said, noting that the building had become an eyesore.
He said the government will invest in a new, modern, and state-of-the-art facility to house and rehabilitate the prisoners. He stated that the government has the support of the chambers of commerce and the business community within Port of Spain, and the project will be implemented in four phases.
“The first phase will be, in fact, removing prisoners from Port-of-Spain to the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, condemned persons and persons on remand, and we’ll continue doing that until the prison is no more.”
Asked about the current prison population at the Port of Spain facility, Alexander replied, “While we want to give you an exact figure, we would want to hold on to that until further notice, because we want to give you the correct figure.”
He did not indicate when the prisoners would be relocated, saying, “MSP is a big area, you know, where it could take a lot of things, a lot of new infrastructure to treat a lot of situations.
“And we probably will be looking at that, although there are some other areas that we have located, maybe with the intention of treating it in terms of prison and prison facilities.”
Alexander said that the Carrera Island Prison Facility could also be used to house prisoners.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has welcomed the government’s decision, noting that while the Port of Spain facility holds historical significance, it has long been inadequate to meet the needs of the modern correctional system.
“The association, therefore, views the move toward decommissioning as a necessary step. A step we have been asking for the last few years,” said POA president, Gerard Gordo.
and then 