Young defends use of Building 13; rejects PM’s claim of gang coordination

Former National Security minister Stuart Young has dismissed claims by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that gang leaders were grouped together in Building 13 at the Maximum Security Prison during his tenure. He said the inmates were kept separate and were not allowed to interact.

Speaking at a press briefing at the office of the Opposition Leader at Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Young defended the decision to utilise Building 13. He said the initiative was developed during his time as National Security minister in collaboration with the Commissioner of Prisons, the Commissioner of Police, and other officials.

“Prisons are under control by the prison officers, and it worked. Unfortunately, and I can even say that in the utilisation of it and putting some of these leaders into Building 13 separately, they were not allowed to meet together, and it worked for a time.

“Unfortunately, as I said, all a government can do is introduce policy. Within a matter of a week or two of utilising it, the Government received a pre-action protocol letter from those incarcerated in Building 13 saying their rights were infringed, which went nowhere because at the time it was properly carried out.”

Persad-Bissessar said the former administration’s decision to cluster high-risk inmates at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca created conditions that enabled gang coordination and criminal activity behind bars.

“Then, as Minister of National Security, the member brought his pen out. What did he do? He took all the main kingpins, and he put them in a building called Building 13,” she said, referring to Stuart Young, MP for Port-of-Spain North and St Ann’s West.

“All these kingpins coordinated, became a syndicate when you placed them in that Maximum Security Prison, Building 13,” she added. Young stated that, contrary to accusations made by Persad-Bissessar during Monday’s parliamentary debate on the extension of the State of Emergency (SoE), the inmates were never grouped together or allowed to interact. “Building 13 was introduced; it had a concept using Defence Force personnel on rotation, masked, as well as police on rotation, masked, so at no time did the prisoners know who they were, and they were rotated so at no time could any relationships be formed with a prison officer,” Young said.

Young, however, noted that conditions changed at Building 13.

“So it is very, very fictitious for the Prime Minister to come and say what she said yesterday (Monday), but I understand it, the personal attacks. That is her way, but I am sure that if you go to the Commissioner of Police at the time, he will tell you much more about what it was, the concept of Building 13, and how successful it was until, unfortunately, those in charge of the prisons decided to do otherwise.”

Prison Officers’ Association president Gerard Gordon told Guardian Media that he supported Persad-Bissessar’s concerns regarding Building 13.

Gordon said the facility was originally built as a pre-release centre and was never intended to hold high-risk offenders.