A weekend prison raid that netted more drugs, alcohol, weapons and cellular equipment than ever before has raised the alarm and highlighted the corrupt faction within the prison staff, according to a senior government official.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security Mark Wilson is convinced that there is corruption among some prison officers. It was a claim the president of the Bahamas Prison Officers Association vehemently denied.
Mr. Wilson on Monday declined to speculate on the number of officers involved in “spiriting contraband.”
“I would tend to lean toward the view that you have a small band of persons concerned together who are doing these things for money, but I would not reach the quantum leap that you have large numbers of officers who are corrupt in Her Majesty’s Prison,” Mr. Wilson said.
“That might be the case, but I would not want to reach that conclusion without some conclusive evidence.”
With contraband making its way into the prison, Mr. Wilson said it does not follow that persons can be helped to escape just as easily.
“That is more difficult to achieve,” he said. “You would literally need the collusion of the very top officers to have that happen, to have a break out particularly in the maximum security wing,” he said.
“Any breach of the prison security could theoretically escalate and become a threat to national security. All I am saying is based on what we have found so far and what we know so far, we do not feel there is any immediate threat to national security.”
Meanwhile, president of the Prison Officers Association Sergeant Samuel Duvalier said it was more likely that inmates, not officers, brought the contraband into the cells.
Sergeant Duvalier said close to 200 inmates are allowed out of prison under police supervision as a part of the work release scheme daily. He pointed out that scores of other prisoners were sent to court on a daily basis and allowed access to their families.
“We have to look further than the prison officers with regard to this contraband,” he said. “Every week prison officers are in the blocks searching. Every prison around the world has a problem with things coming in. Prison officers are loyal and faithful to the country.”
Mr. Duvalier is demanding a public apology from Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson or the National Security Ministry, for “demoralizing” staff when morale is already at an all time low.
“I too want to stamp out corruption within the prison, wherever it is, at any level, whether it be top or bottom,” he said. “We are not questioning the search. We are questioning the manner in which it was done.
“The police officers came in and treated my members as if they were the inmates. They detained them under force and this is illegal and a criminal act. This can not be seen within The Bahamas.”
Mr. Duvalier called the police action “disgraceful and distasteful.”
“You can’t have junior police officers talking down to senior prison officers,” he said.
The Prison Officers Association is demanding an apology by Thursday, “or else you’ll hear from the association again,” Mr. Duvalier said.
When asked if he was threatening industrial action, Mr. Duvalier said his remarks were not a threat, but “a promise”.
Scores of police officers and officers in the Central Detective Unit were told to report to work at 5pm Friday. At 8pm, three Royal Bahamas Police Force buses transported the officers from the CID Thompson Boulevard headquarters to Her Majesty’s Prison.
In a massive five-hour hunt, officers systematically searched the prison for contraband. The search reportedly began in Maximum Security and ended in the First Offenders section of the prison shortly after 2am Saturday. A simultaneous search took place in the female section of the facility.
At the end of the search, officers retrieved around five pounds of marijuana, cellular telephones, “sharpened artifacts and fermented liquid.”
The raid stemmed from reports that illegal activities were prevalent in prison.
Mr. Wilson said, “These kinds of contraband have been found in the prison before, but what is alarming about this particular raid is it appears that the sophistication of the contraband and the quantity are both increasing.
“As a result of that the Ministry of National Security is going to take some further corrective measures.”
He said contraband like cellular phones and illegal drugs can only be brought into the prison in one manner and that is by the prison officers who have access to the outside.
Tosheena Blair, The Bahama Journal
