Guards say power being abused at Pointe Blanche

�~ Urge minster to look into their concerns ~

�

POINTE BLANCHE--Pointe Blanche prison guards have issued a plea to Justice Minister Roland Duncan to visit the prison to obtain a firsthand view of the injustices they say are taking place at the house of detention.

� About 60 guards ? about 75 per cent ? have signed a letter that was sent to the minister outlining their concerns and calling on him to intervene.

� The letter was delivered to Duncan's office last week Thursday by the workers' legal representative the ABVO St. Maarten union.

� Union Secretary Sigfried Pataca said Sunday that the prison guards strongly believed there was a lot of mismanagement at the prison at the management level. He said the workers were requesting that the minster "take into consideration what's going on in the prison."

� "The guards find that they are being threatened by the prison director [Rudsel Ricardo, ed.]. His way of dealing with situations at the prison is not to their liking for security reasons. They feel as if it is unsafe at the prison," Pataca said.

� He said too that management was placing workers in a position to fight against each other. "Everyone tries to fight each other because that's how he set the workers."

� The prison has an estimated 70-plus prison guards. Pataca said the letter to the minister was urgent and the union and guards were hoping the minister would act on the correspondence.

��"The workers feel that if the situation continues like this, it can only get worse. They had letters to [previous] Ministers of Justice, but they never took into consideration what happens at the prison. We hope that the minister tries to solve this problem," Pataca said.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/19760-guards-say-power-being-abused-at-pointe-blanche.html

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