Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
VISITS AT the Tower Street maximum security facility in Kingston is expected to be significantly reduce from 230,000 per annum to 20,000, Commissioner of Corrections, Major Richard Reese, told The Gleaner yesterday.
The Commissioner , who was touring the penal facility, noted that over 300 persons have already registered to visit inmates at the institution when public access to the facility is resumed on April 30.
Visits to the prison were suspended four weeks ago, following a major disturbance in which four persons were killed during a foiled prison break. Since then, there have been some major structural changes at the prison.
Visitors are now screened in the car park across from the prison. On entering the prison compound, they are again screened. More heavily-armed correctional officers are assigned between the two main gates which separate the over 1,700 inmates. One of the gates has been enforced with special steel plates to ward off possible attacks on the warders standing in the passage.
METALIC MESH INSTALLED
The area used by visitors for talking with inmates has been renovated to facilitate the process in a more secure fashion. Commissioner Reese has also constructed metallic, mesh, fencing to separate the mass of inmates on each block.
By the end of this year, the maximum security prison will be equipped with closed-circuit television to monitor the flow of personnel in and out of the prison. Under the new rules, a number of items, including foot- wear and refreshment, have been banned by the Department of Correctional Services.
"We have a tuck shop and everything can be purchased there now," said Major Reese, who disclosed that the official report on the bloody incident will be submitted to the Minister of National Security, April 30.
