Another prisoner challenges removal to military facility

Justice Ricky Rahim. -

ANOTHER remanded prisoner removed from the Maximum Security Prison, Arouca, to the military base in Chaguaramas is challenging his new place of confinement in court.

Attorneys for Nefta Felix filed an urgent application for judicial review as he seeks several declarations and orders against the Prisons Commissioner.

Justice Ricky Rahim on August 20 ordered Felix’s attorneys, Criston J Williams and Aaron Lewis, to serve the State with his application for leave by August 22. The case is scheduled to be heard before Justice Nadia Kangaloo on September 11.

Felix, who was removed from the Maximum Security Prison on August 10 and taken to the military facility, is seeking an order compelling prison leadership to confirm whether he is held in a military or civilian prison and that he be allowed access to his lawyers. He also seeks declarations that the prison’s failure to investigate his complaints amounts to a breach of his rights.

His attorneys said they attempted physical access on August 11 but were denied. On August 12, they were allowed virtual access, during which Felix reported breaches of 16 prison rules. He also said he was prevented from filing a complaint, prompting his legal team to send a pre-action letter on August 14, giving the State seven days to respond.

On August 18, Felix’s attorneys were granted physical access. They argue his confinement represents a “dramatic departure” from accepted standards, calling it cruel and unusual punishment. The legal filing alleges that the facility is poorly ventilated, filled with paint fumes that endanger his health, and that he has been denied the ability to practise his religion.

His lawyers contend the State has yet to answer questions about his place of confinement. Felix’s application argues his current conditions are atypical, harsher than normal for prisoners, not authorised by law, and a violation of his constitutional rights.

This is the third legal challenge over the State’s movement of remanded prisoners from the Arouca penal facility to the military base.

On July 23, Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander announced updated detention regulations under the Emergency Powers Regulations, 2025, expanding the list of approved detention centres to include Teteron Barracks, Staubles Bay, Carrera Convict Prison, the Women’s Prison and Remand Prison at Golden Grove, and the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre.

The Parliament later debated the Prisons (No 2) Order, 2025 which sought approval for the Minister of Homeland Security to appoint any place as a convict depot or prison by Order, subject to Parliament’s approval.

The government said the move was needed to counter threats from criminal networks operating inside prisons. There are 11 inmates currently housed at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas.