­Brawl in Port of Spain prison; 11 rushed to hospital

A shocking incident took place in Port of Spain prison on Tuesday morning when 11 people had to be rushed to the Port of Spain General Hospital. The 11 people included six prisoners and five prison officers. The incident unfolded itself when, at around 11 AM an infuriated and irritated prisoner refused to go back into his cell. The prison officer on duty tried to resolve the issue and bring him back to his cell, but the prisoner got agitated.

Following the tense arguments between the prison inmate and the prison officer at Port of Spain prison, the inmate attacked the officer and fought with him. In response to the attack the officer defended himself. It was after this, when the encounter took a more ferocious turn. All the inmates around the vicinity of the incident joined in the fight. The prison officials intervened and controlled the fight. It took the officials around 10 minutes to contain the situation.

Following the incident, Acting Commissioner of Prisons Deopersad Ramoutar said that he has launched an investigation into the case. He assured the public regarding the peace being maintained. He also informed the public that the regular functioning of Port of Spain prison has been established.

He commented that such situations are pretty common in the life of a prison guard officer. However, the efforts of such officers often go undervalued and unappreciated, according to him.

He also acknowledged the involvement of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service in the case, in order to ensure that the rate of such incidents goes down and the inmates get discouraged before committing any such indisciplinary and heinous act.

Certainly, justice should never be biased or based on the statements of one party, regardless of who the parties are. Here, in this case, where one party is a prison officer while the other is an inmate, naturally the people will assume an inclination towards the officer. But on contrary to that, Commissioner Ramoutar has promised to hear the plea of both the parties and the final decision will be taken after an unbiased and thorough investigation.