Two years ago Vincent Alleyne didn't see anything wrong with the handover, takeover procedure between senior and junior warders at Glendairy Prisons.

But since the riot at the Station Hill facility on March 29, the 11-year veteran prison officer believes he made a mistake in judgement when accepting keys from his superior Winston Bradshaw on a day the facility was short-staffed.

Alleyne told the commission of inquiry yesterday that in his experience at the facility, it had become customary for senior officers to simply hand over keys to their juniors when taking breaks for lunch.

Alleyne said handovers were only documented in a special book if it was the changing of a shift at the prison.

"In hindsight, it was a mistake in judgement. No one knew the prison would be burnt down that day," Alleyne testified. "I saw nothing wrong with it then. I was following tradition."

The prison officer, a trained criminologist, had earlier revealed that on the morning of March 29, 2005, he accepted keys for the prison's main building from Bradshaw, who informed him he was leaving the compound on break.

Not unusual

Alleyne said the decision made by Bradshaw was not an unusual one, even though they were short-staffed. But he did admit he thought Bradshaw was leaving for an emergency, since he (Bradshaw) had entered the executive office with keys to the main prison accommodation building, and that office was an area where those keys were not to be brought by employees unless all inmates were locked down.

"I can't remember him ever doing that before," Alleyne told the commission.

But he denied taking the keys were a dereliction of duty. "I did not have an option. He was my senior, Alleyne testified. "I know the Prison Act states I should accept any reasonable order from my senior."

According to Alleyne, the handover never affected the prison's security since four persons were on duty in the area, and though short-staffed, that was not an unusual number. (BA)