2 weeks ago
5
Senior Reporter
Acting Commissioner of Prisons Carlos Corraspe is on 240 days’ vacation and was not sent on administrative leave, as was initially claimed in media reports.
This was confirmed by the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) and newly appointed acting Commissioner of Prisons Hayden Forde yesterday.
In a media release posted to the POA’s Facebook page yesterday, president Gerard Gordon urged the public and the media to approach matters concerning the prison service with fairness, accuracy, and responsibility.
Gordon said Corraspe being on vacation is a standard and necessary process within the public service, as officers are encouraged not to accumulate more than 90 days of vacation leave in accordance with established guidelines.
Corraspe was asked to take his roughly eight-month vacation on Wednesday and it took effect on Thursday.
However, the timing of Corraspe’s vacation raised public concern, as the state of the prison system is at the centre of concerns in the ongoing State of Emergency.
In justifying the need to call an SoE on July 18, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro said prisoners who had formed themselves into a network, with the assistance of prison officers, were plotting to murder state officials.
Calls and messages to Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander and Corraspe went unanswered up to press time last night.
In a telephone interview with Guardian Media yesterday, Forde said the report that Corraspe was sent on administrative leave were inaccurate.
“Administrative leave will suggest that someone is under some form of investigation. And to my knowledge, and to the prison service knowledge, that is not the case. Mr Corraspe is on vacation leave at this point in time.”
He saidthe security of his officers remains paramount, adding he said he was working with the state to ensure their safety.
Asked what his plans for the service were, Forde said: “I will be working. I, the executive and other senior members of the management team, will be working with other arms of the criminal justice system and the national security apparatus to ensure that our public is as safe as possible, given the various challenges that we normally face from time to time. And we know that our officers are disenchanted, and we are doing our best to treat with that disenchantment.”
Addressing the suggestion that rogue officers were complicit in the escalation of gang activities from inside the prison, Forde said the officers will be dealt with.
“The thing about that is we are not putting our heads in the sand; we are not shirking our responsibilities. We know that there are rogue officers who are in our system. We understand that. We will be treating those rogue officers in the fullness of time’” Forde said.
“As to regaining the trust of the public, we will continue to do what we are happy doing as a noble service. And we are going to get rid of our rogue officers.”
In a telephone interview with Guardian Media on Wednesday, Corraspe said solid evidence against his officers was needed before action could be taken against them for colluding with prisoners.
“You cannot act on intel. Intel just gives you an idea of who are persons who may be acting in a particular manner. But then you need a little more than that to act against them,” he said.
He said he was confident that he would get the support of the Homeland Security Ministry to address infrastructural work, part of which will address rogue officers.
In an interview with Guardian Media last month, Defence Minister Wayne Sturge said there was a Maximum Security Prison inmate with a 65-inch television, smuggled in by prison officers, which was used to communicate with gangsters through online video games.
Asked about that and his plans to regain the public’s trust in the prison service, Forde said items like televisions are used to rehabilitate inmates and keep them aware of what’s happening outside of prisons.
“At the end of the day, the inmates are human beings as well. And we have to ensure that when they leave our system, they can make informed decisions, they can make choices, and they can hopefully become better citizens. So, system-wide, we will have the television,” he said.
“However, in this particular case, Mr Corraspe would have made a pronouncement on it, so I wouldn’t say anything further on that. What I can say on that is the minister would have made a statement. We are looking into it to determine if it’s a credible statement.”
English (US) ·