TT: Prison visit

Amid calls from prisons officers for him to visit, Fitzgerald Hinds, Junior Minister in the Ministry of National Security, plans to tour all of the nation’s jails during the next few weeks.

Hinds said yesterday: “I received no formal invitation from the prisons officials, but in my capacity as Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security, I have a plan to visit all of the prisons in the next few weeks, and that would coincide with their invitation.”

Hinds said since receiving his new ministerial portfolio, the issue of prison service reform was high on his agenda.

He said he had been working extremely hard, and managed only four hours’ sleep every night.

Prisons officers are demanding increased wages, and some officers claim they work under unhealthy conditions.

Yep, the prison officers are right. THeir working conditions are unhealthy all right ... for the prisoners, the ones beaten to death without recourse to proper medical assistance.