1,184 cell phones smuggled into T&T prison cells

The minister of national security admitted Monday that there has been an unprecedented amount of illegal smuggling of cellphones into the Trinidad and Tobago prisons. Martin Joseph told the Senate over the past six years, a total of 1,184 cellphones have been confiscated from prisoners.That's an average of 197 phones a year.

"One of the major challenges faced by the prison service over the years is the practice of corrupt officers making cellphones available to inmates," Joseph said adding that the prison service has implemented "a number of measures" to block the entry of cellphones into the prisons.

Joseph explained that authorities now make "more robust checks of officers" and officers are required to leave their mobile phones at the gate lodge before entering the prison compounds.

He also informed the upper house that his ministry has bought gate scanners and hand-held scanners to check for the devices at entry points and that the government is redrafting prison service regulations to allow junior officers to be searched.

He said prison officers suspected "to be engaged in the illicit trafficking and use of cellphones within the prison compound face disciplinary charges which are overseen by the Public Service Commission" but he didn't explain why the regulations that are being changed would apply only to junior personnel.

He said the prison personnel are not the only ones to smuggle phones. He said visitors sometimes hand over phones and some are just tossed into the prisons. "In the case of [the] Carrera convict prison, such packages are sometimes thrown from passing boats," he said.

He pledged to get the coast guard involved in closer monitoring of the system. And he said the recent purchase of closed-circuit television systems would enhance security in and around the island. He said greater security measures would be put in place at other prisons.