Inmates go on strike,
doubt if they will vote
~ Rehabilitation officer not paid,
electronic surveillance project stopped ~
POINTE BLANCHE--Inmates at the Pointe Blanche prison plan to go on strike today, Thursday. They say they are extremely unhappy about how Minister of Justice David Dick is handling judicial matters pertaining to St. Maarten.
They are also thinking about not voting in the Island Council election on Friday.
The main reason for their discontent is that the project for releasing certain inmates from prison on electronic surveillance has been stopped. “Only three inmates were released under electronic surveillance and the rest of us are waiting,” president of the inmates association Ilie Patrick Mathew told The Daily Herald.
“The rehabilitation officer hasn’t been paid for two months and stopped working. That’s why the project has been stopped and all inmates are suffering.”
The association met with prison director Rudsel Ricardo yesterday to talk about their grievances. “Ricardo has done all he can, but it’s not in his hands. It’s the Minister who has to take care of things. The rehabilitation department is the responsibility of the Central Government.”
The strike the inmates will go on as of today will mean that they won’t do any of the work they normally do every day, such as construction of the prison expansion cells, sewing uniforms for inmates and prison guards, cooking for all Pointe Blanche inmates and suspects held at the police station, and general cleaning and maintenance in prison.
Mathew also said the inmates had requested the Minister last year to appoint a second rehabilitation officer because the work was too much for one person. However, this request hasn’t been honoured by the Minister.
Mathew said that because of the lack of prison guards both the inmates and the prison guards were becoming really frustrated with the situation in prison. “The Minister always leaves prison for last.”
He also pointed out that the prison was already full, while police had a zero tolerance policy. “This means that the police cells are overcrowded, because there is no more room in Pointe Blanche. Consequently, suspects are being released again from police cells, while in prison there are rehabilitated inmates who are being neglected.”
Another big disappointment for the inmates that Mathew brought forward was the possibility to have laptop computers. “We requested a long time ago to have computers. There is an inmate with 12 different computer certificates, but he cannot have a computer to work on. Meanwhile, they have had computers for so long in prison in Curaçao and the situation has even gone out of hand.”
Besides blaming the Central Government for completely neglecting the situation in St. Maarten, Mathew wants to know from the St. Maarten politicians what is being done to start solving these types of problems as the island prepares to obtain country status.
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