Prison Pressure

Ninety-nine prison officers, some of whom were recently released from quarantine or isolation are on sick leave, placing “incredible pressure” on those who remain, says Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams.

And while teams from the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Barbados Defence Force have done a commendable job in picking up the slack, this has impacted on the ability of Her Majesty’s Prison to provide certain services like virtual visits for the families of inmates.

Speaking during Saturday’s COVID-19 management update from Ilaro Court, Abrahams said managing the viral illness and getting staff back up to full complement soon would impact on the ability to resume normal operations.

There are about 350 prison staff and almost a third of them are now out, but the Minister said the number on the job was steadily increasing.

There were more than 300 positive COVID-19 cases at Dodds and Abrahams said this was now down to “a very small number”. At present, 147 prison officers have reported to work and only ten COVID-19 tests are outstanding. After a few days with their families, some of those who were in isolation or quarantine should be returning to work this week.

None of the prison officers who returned to work have contracted COVID, so the sanitising protocols are working, he concluded.

Phone calls to inmates have now been restored, credit can be applied to prisoners’ accounts and those who were scheduled to leave are being released. Inmates are being allowed outside for exercise under supervision.

Abrahams says they are continuing to monitor the inmates. Through the use of the rapid antigen tests, they identified three people suspected of having COVID-19 – all of them tested positive – and are now under isolation.

Thirteen prison officers remain in isolation.