WILLEMSTAD--Antillean Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba (PAR) has explained more about the state of emergency she proclaimed at Curaçao's Bon Futuro prison up to and including December 31.
The decision was based on the perceived need for extra security measures and according to Jacoba is necessary in order to take extra steps quicker in addition to those of the past months.
After having met with the local labour unions involved and the personnel, the minister decided to implement the extra measures. The management team of Bon Futuro will supervise the process during this period.
The state of emergency was proclaimed by means of a ministerial decree that gives the prison director the possibility to take measures against prisoners using the telephones without permission, to take urine samples from prisoners for drugs and alcohol testing and to introduce a system of a mandatory first-day sickness report for the personnel.
The unlimited use of the public telephones in the prison will be curbed. Jacoba spoke of an exceptional situation whereby inmates could make unlimited use of the eighty public telephones in the prison.
In the future, they will be given ten minutes per week at the most. Every prisoner will receive a personal code to make a telephone call so that one can keep track of the calls and their duration per prisoner. The prisoners also have to ask a prison guard for permission to make a telephone call, who then dials the requested number for them.
The control on the presence of metal devices and drugs will be increased as well. Everyone visiting the prison -including employees- must remove their shoes and belt. In addition, specially trained dogs of the police and customs will be deployed during these visitor inspections.
The minister is also expediting the set-up of a security department within the prison in connection with the departure of the personnel of the Dutch special assistance unit LBB per September 1. Nevertheless, she made an appeal to the Judicial Departments Service in the Netherlands to keep the LBB members up to and including 10-10-10, offering an own Internal Assistance Team IBT the opportunity to get ready and take over the perimeter security.
The conclusion of a penitentiary workshop held on June 13 was that there's a crisis situation in the prison requiring 24-hour security. The workshop was organised by a monitoring group installed by the minister to evaluate the situation in Bon Futuro on a daily basis.
Various measures have already been taken to make the prison a safer place. Jacoba referred to the clean up action outside Bon Futuro, improvement and extension of the outside wall, installing cameras at strategic locations, moving the porter's lodge, construction of a porter's lodge at the outside entrance, using a metal detector, thorough cleaning out of the cells and establishing an own IBT.
Furthermore, LBB personnel were deployed from the Netherlands for the perimeter security and there's a police criminal investigation into bringing illegal items such as drugs, weapons and mobile telephones into the prison.
Leader of coalition party FOL Anthony Godett meanwhile said that Jacoba went too far in limiting the telephone conversations of inmates to ten minutes per week. He urged her to review this measure.
In reaction to the minister's decision, Godett stated that in the past the prisoners had acquired the right to make more telephone calls. "The regular contact with family members also fits into the prisoner's rehabilitation process."
Godett also points out the increased risks for the prison guards. "The prisoner who becomes frustrated because he has less contact with his family could vent this on the guard who receives the order to listen in on the conversations," said the FOL leader.
Godett also feels that the prisoners should have a certain extent of privacy. He finds it unjust that all 450 have to suffer because a few prisoners are at fault.
"The minister should tackle those who are at fault. This only creates an explosive situation with all possible consequences."
