– for allegedly smuggling ganja into Lusignan Prison

SEVEN prison wardens were handed over to police custody on Labour Day, May 1, after they were identified as allegedly facilitating the smuggling of cannabis into the Lusignan Prison.

Contacted by this newspaper on the matter on Tuesday, Acting Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels confirmed that the wardens have been arrested. He said that the wardens are in police custody and noted that an internal investigation commenced and based on the findings, the necessary letter(s) of interdiction will be issued.

Samuel said that a bag was thrown over the fence of the prison and landed in the holding bay at Lusignan Prison, and the wardens on duty in that section are in police custody since based on video footage they facilitated the smuggling process.
“I am informed the bag thrown over the fence had a high scent of marijuana,” the director noted.
Last month, the prison director had issued a call to all prison warders and officers to desist from trafficking contraband in the prisons, while asking those who are guilty to understand the consequences as the law will take its course.

He said that getting rid of contraband in prison could not be a fight by a few and there was need for collective efforts. “The well-established syndicates may think that they are safe and secure but they cannot be allowed to continue. We will continue our searches and those found to be colluding in trafficking contraband will have to answer to the law. We cannot compromise. While efforts are being made to improve our physical structures and improve the use of technology, for now, our reliance is on the human factor,” Samuels said.

Noting that over the past few weeks, despite regular searches, prison wardens kept unearthing various forms of contraband including cellular phones, marijuana and local wine along with other illegalities, the prison director said, this should be cause for concern for each and every one since the security of the prison, and by extension the security of the nation is at risk.

“Make no mistake about it our security is at risk when we allow these items in. Taking into account the quantity of these prohibited items and the locations where some of the items are discovered, it stretches the imagination that these items got into the prison only [by] being trafficked by prisoners using their bodies to conceal same,” Samuels said.

He continued: “As prison officers working in a service dedicated to correction and rehabilitation, we are tasked with the responsibility to make offenders better citizens.”

The Director noted that the GPS was tasked with creating an environment where the focus on rehabilitation is done with passion. “We are tasked with creating an environment where the people under our charge can respect us, respect our office, and see us as role models for whom they can become. If we support them and their families in contravening the laws of the prison, we are not helping them; we are in fact condoning the very activities that caused them to be in prison in the first place; we are telling them it is ok to be lawless,” he said.
He explained that such actions on behalf of the warders only mold inmates to continue a life of crime and failure. Worse yet, he said, it was that the prison service was showing inmates that they were no better. The trade of contraband, while it may seem profitable initially, is bad for the prison environment.