THE BERMUDIAN Prison Officers Association (POA) is meeting with government representatives to try to avert strike action by prison officers unhappy with the leadership abilities of John Prescod, former Jamaican Commissioner of Corrections.
The government has given the issue top priority to try to appease the POA, which last week gave notice that its members planned strike action in 21 days, unless their grievances were addressed.
Bermuda's Royal Gazette newspaper reported last week that three quarters of Bermuda's prison officers had passed a no confidence motion against Mr. Prescod. This came after the POA members accused him of being autocratic and failing to implement 23 out of 35 recommendations made following a 2001 board of inquiry into the service.
NO CONFIDENCE LETTER
According to the newspaper, the POA also claimed that Mr. Prescod, who was appointed prison commissioner last year, was more concerned with the welfare of prisoners than of his staff. The POA members handed the no confidence letter to Mr. Prescod, after marching from the Bermuda Industrial Union headquarters to their prison headquarters, just as promotion interviews were about to start for the post of Assistant Commissioner.
Their grouses included that Mr. Prescod is arrogant, disrespectful and not willing to listen. They said he is also responsible for the plummeting morale of his staff.
The reports centring around Mr. Prescod have not ceased since last week, with Gazette writers commenting that protests are not new for him, after a rocky period in Jamaica.
He was listed as having had to battle prison officer walkouts, riots and officer and inmate violence during his eight-year tenure at the helm of Jamaica's prison system.
1997 PRISON RIOT
These include the 1997 prison riot over his plan to offer condoms inside Jamaica's prisons to officers and inmates to fight HIV/AIDS. Sixteen inmates were killed and prison officers walked off the job and were replaced by soldiers.
In June 2000, hundreds of inmates were beaten by prison officers at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre. In January of the same year, hundreds of correctional officers walked off the job, protesting against Mr. Prescod's re-appointment as head of the Department of Corrections.
Mr. Prescod went to Bermuda last year to replace Acting Commissioner Edwin Wilson, after an exhaustive international search.
