SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Cor­rup­tion among a small clique of prison of­fi­cers over the years has brought the prison sys­tem to its knees. Or­gan­ised crime and silent com­plic­i­ty have turned Trinidad and To­ba­go’s prison sys­tem in­to a breed­ing ground for chaos, dri­ven not just by the pris­on­ers but by those en­trust­ed to guard them. Be­hind these walls, the line be­tween law en­forcer and law­break­er is dan­ger­ous­ly blurred, and the con­se­quences are dead­ly for some of­fi­cers.

Prison au­thor­i­ties said two per cent of the 2,700 of­fi­cers have not been op­er­at­ing with­in the law, and their ac­tions have put the lives of the re­main­ing 98 per cent at risk.