A prison officer has accused the authorities of barring wardens from wearing their own masks, claiming inadequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff at HMP Dodds, Barbados TODAY has been told.
The officer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, declared this afternoon his conscience would not allow him to remain silent any more, especially having to work in such a crowded environment as a prison.
He told Barbados TODAY: “It is something of grave concern. I have to remain anonymous because I know the ramifications and the victimization. But my conscience would not allow me not to expose something like this. How could you be… for prison officers that you are not allowing them to wear masks while executing their duties, while in some instances it is impossible to maintain a six-feet social distancing parameter?
“The police are given masks to execute when they are carrying out their duties. Come on, the powers that be…Mr Nurse [Superintendent], the Orderly Officers, Mr Hinkson, the Minister of Home Affairs, please look into this matter. The officers are uneasy. There is no voice for us, but please.”
The warden cautioned that while prison officers would continue to do their best in carrying out their duties, they should not be taken for granted.
Industrial relations advisor to the Prison Officers Association Senator Caswell Franklyn told Barbados TODAY he had been made aware of a situation where wardens who wore their own masks to work were being ordered to take them off.
Senator Franklyn said he was also being told that management of the prison was seeking to make masks with panty material because they were not enough masks for the staff.
But when Barbados TODAY reached out to Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson on claims of inadequate PPE stocks at the prison, he said: “I have been advised that masks are being made and will be provided in short order for all prison personnel.”
But Hinkson said the Prison Superintendent Lt Col. John Nurse has denied claims that management had ordered officers not to wear their own masks and was seeking to manufacture them from panty material.
The Government has repeatedly given assurances that HMP Dodds has the best possible COVID-19 protocols in place.
Minister Hinkson has also rejected suggestions by the Opposition People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP) that the screening protocol at the prison was inadequate.
The party, led by Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley, had also suggested that all prisoners who have been recently remanded should be tested.
But Hinkson said the prison service has a health protocol for some time now which had been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
“This protocol is enhanced during every national influenza outbreak. Hence, management initiated and activated its response protocol to COVID-19 in early February. Any suspected cases of flu-like symptoms are assessed and evaluated by medically trained personnel,” he told Barbados TODAY in mid-April.
He said then that any prisoner suspected of flu or any similar illness is isolated in the prisons’ medical unit and the senior medical health officer at the St. Philip Polyclinic is informed.
The Minister responsible for police and prisons also said that an inmate would remain isolated until the diagnostic test conducted on him is confirmed.
Hinkson said: “If it is found that the prisoner does have flu or any similar illness, he will remain isolated and treated. All visits to Dodds, whether by relatives, friends or anyone outside of the prisons’ staff or maintenance team, have been prohibited since the curfew took effect.
“My information is that all officers from the superintendent right down, are temperature-tested and hand-sanitised on entry through the prison gates. Thereafter, any officer entering any unit housing, either remand or convicted prisoners, are again tested and hand-sanitised.”
He went on to announce that all prisoners now entering the prison for the first time are interviewed and questioned as to their present health status, screened and tested for temperature.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
