No sunshine today for prisoners

Abuse of power behind prison walls has hit a new low. Prison officers at the women’s prison are reportedly denying inmates access to the Sunshine Today newspaper.

LEFT: ALLISTER CAMPBELL, 42, was found shot to death inside his Unity Lane, Carapo, home RIGHT: RANDY AMOROSO alleged that he was badly beaten by a prison officer and his hand was fractured

The Fearless Weekly received a call from the irate relative of an inmate at the prison who related her experience. The woman said that on a recent trip to the prison she bought copies of the three daily newspapers and a Sunshine Today to give to her daughter who is incarcerated so that the young woman would have some reading material and also keep abreast of things happening on the outside.

The woman said she was shocked when the prison officers on duty told her they would allow her to give the daily newspapers to her daughter but they would not allow the inmate to read the Sunshine Today. The Sunshine Today is a weekly newspaper that focuses on hard hitting investigative journalism. It also contains human interest stories that highlights the needs, suffering and achievements of ordinary citizens, current affairs, health and wellness news, sports and much more.

While the free press is a formidable weapon in the fight against crime, corruption and injustice in society, it is difficult to see how 24 pages of newsprint could be a greater threat to prison safety compared to the contraband items that are openly circulating in our prisons – images of which are frequently plastered across social media. For instance, many inmates still possess smartphones and appear to have high-speed internet connections in the comfort of their prison cells.

Randy Amoroso

Two weeks ago, Randy Amoroso who is serving a four-year sentence at the Port of Spain Prison was recorded in his cell delivering a plea for medical treatment. In the 71-second video, Amoroso alleged that he was badly beaten by a prison officer on February 8, 2019, and his hand was fractured. He said doctors ordered that the cast on his hand be removed after three weeks and he be taken to a bone specialist for further attention.

Up until the time Amoroso made his S-O-S video, he still had the cast on his hand and he claimed he had not been taken for the followup treatment. Even worse, two recent murders in Carapo are said to be linked to a “high-profile prisoner” in one of the nation’s prisons. Allister Campbell, 42, was found shot to death inside his Unity Lane, Carapo, home on March 27, 2019. Campbell’s killing is believed to be linked to that of 39-year-old Arnold Joseph in Pinewood Drive, Carapo, who was found stabbed to death the day before. Senior police sources say investigators are following a trail of evidence that is leading behind prison walls.

Playing petty power games

To the ordinary members of the public it would seem that prison officers should be focusing their attention on real, serious issues instead of playing petty power games with newspapers especially with Sunshine Today. Calls to the Prison Administration for an explanation at first went unanswered. In a subsequent call, we were advised that the Commissioner of Prisons was attending a one-month course in Germany and that we can raise the matter with him on his return. We did. And he advised that the policy of the Prisons Service is to have all newspapers vetted as any other magazine but Sunshine Today should not have been rejected.