WHAT ABOUT $50 M PRISON JAMMERS?

TRINIDAD and Tobago has spent more than $50 million on telephone jammers and grabbers and yet Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says that criminals are calling the shots from behind bars.

Over the years, the prison services have been outfitted with modern phone jammers and grabbers, designed to block and scramble calls to and from prisoners.

Asked in Parliament in May 2022 whether the equipment were working, Rowley declined to provide a definitive answer.

“Your mischief knows no bounds,” Rowley told Opposition parliamentarian Rodney Charles, who asked the question.

Acting Commissioner of Prisons Deopersad Ramoutar had previously said he had no control over the jammers and grabbers.

The equipment had been purchased by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Administration.

Ramoutar said: “I will not assume that that technology is in use.

“Unfortunately, I have never seen one of those.”

He added: “Just like every citizen, we hear of jammers and grabbers and so on.

“But I am not responsible for that.”

Quizzed by the media about how is responsible, Ramoutar responded: “I can’t say.”

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said: “That equipment, while based at the prison, is under the purview of the Strategic Services Agency, in accordance with Government policy.”

Rowley’s refusal to state whether the equipment were functional raised speculation that they were not in use.

In a television interview last week, the Prime Minister said that the “gang brains” are behind bars and those prisoners are running the crime network.

In response, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar questioned the status of the jammers and grabbers.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar asked: “Why are teams of law enforcement not sent into prisons to search every nook and cranny and seize devices that are being used to call murder hits and organise crime?”

She added: “Have our intelligence services fallen apart?

“Or, are they being used only to spy on the Opposition?”

As Prime Minister, Ms. Persad-Bissessar had announced the purchase of the equipment as an anti-crime measure.

Then-Prisons Commissioner Martin Martinez had identified the use of cellular phones as a major problem at the prisons.

Martinez said the jammers would be strategically placed and managed by a special team of prisons officers.

Both Martinez and Ramoutar have said that strong emphasis was placed on intercepting telephone calls and illicit items that were being traded among prisoners.

But in the midst of the revelation by the Prime Minister about illegal activities being hatched in prison, there is no word on the $50 million jammers and grabbers.