Warders could be fired for alleged prison recordings
COMMISSIONER OF the Department of Correctional Services Ina Hunter says that while investigations continue into allegations that convicted entertainer Vybz Kartel is illegally recording music in prison, correctional officers who fail polygraph tests in relation to the matter could be sacked from the department.
On Monday, Chairman of the Jamaica Federations of Corrections Arlington Turner told Radio Jamaica that Hunter blundered in her handling of the production of music by incarcerated persons, especially dancehall artiste Kartel.
However, in an interview with Hunter on Tuesday, the corrections boss dismissed claims by Turner that she had knowledge that the controversial artiste was recording songs in contravention of the regulations. “I can’t allow what I don’t know happening in terms of concrete evidence,” she said.
Hunter said that at the end of the probe, she would reveal her findings to the public.
“We have speculations, and there are suggestions that it could be happening, but in terms of pinning persons down, having concrete evidence, we don’t,” she insisted.
NEW MEASURES TO ADDRESS CORRUPTION
On Tuesday, State Minister for National Security with policy oversight responsibility for the Department of Corrections Pearnel Charles Jr announced that recruits and correctional officers would be polygraphed as part of a raft of measures aimed at addressing the ongoing claims that music illegally recorded behind bars has been making its way on to the national airwaves.
Hunter made it clear that if correctional officers failed the polygraph or lie detector test, sanctions would apply.
She conceded that if incarcerated persons were recording music in prison, it would have to be acts of corruption that facilitated the process.
“We have always had investigations going on. You hear about it and you speculate. We would have had our searches, we would have had transfers internally, but the concrete evidence to make people culpable is lacking. That is what we continue to search for,” she said.