Money, drugs and cellphones top the list of items being smuggled into the island's maximum security prisons by warders daily, a suspended warder has told the Sunday Observer.

A warder, whose identity we will not reveal, told the Sunday Observer that "corruption in Jamaica's prisons can't stop" because of how the system is designed at both the St Catherine District Prison and General Penitentiary in Downtown Kingston.

Inmates are seen in this file photo of a section of the St Catherine District Prison.

The warder, who has more than 15 years' service and who apparently wants to free his conscience, came to the newspaper with his story.

He admitted he is guilty of smuggling drugs, money and cellphones, however he maintained he was not guilty of the particular action he is now charged with.

He said over the years he not only supplemented his income from smuggling, but believed this spared his life in 1993 when a clash between death row inmates and warders at the St Catherine District Prison turned bloody.

Collecting of money from Western Union, purchasing of hot plates, DVDs, cellphones and ganja are among the things, he said, warders are paid by prisoners to do.

If the price is right, he said, a warder can be paid to stop with an inmate at a woman's house enroute to a medical appointment.

He believes smuggling of contraband will never stop since some warders live in the same communities as the inmates.
"When you live in one of these communities and them tell you to carry in a phone and you don't, then you mother dead the next day," he said.

He, however, admitted that some warders smuggle items out of mere greed, while others do it because of what he called the "tightness of the system".

"You borrow a fare fi come work expecting fi get you allowance on the 15th and then you hear it no ready, and a prisoner will beg you buy two cigarette fi him and give you a $500, and so you teck it," he said.

Prisoners, he said, recruit the warders, as they start off by asking for small favours such as buying stamps and envelopes, then eventually make bigger demands like collecting money and taking in phones.

A warder, he said, will buy a pound of ganja for $3,000 and sell it back to the inmate for $5,000 who in turn sells it for $8,500.

"A bag a weed a road is for $20, but in prison it go for $50, and sometimes depending on the situation you can get up to $200 for it," he said. "So a warder will stop downtown and buy a stick a weed fi $100 and come in and sell it fi between $350 and $400 and get him lunch money and fare fi go back home."

When he was asked what methods are used to smuggle contraband into the prisons, the warder explained: "Me we go out a road in my uniform with mi hat on mi head and mi go 'cross the road and collect the cell phone, slip it under mi hat and go back inside and that is a $3,500 right there so me get fi carry it in."

Asked if it ever occurred to him that the phone he takes in could be used in plotting a murder, he said "yes, many times".

He, however, sought to justify the act by saying he uses "psychology" on an inmate to find out what the phone is needed for.

He recalled an incident in which a warder used the money which he was sent to collect for an inmate.

"The prisoner no do nothing but arrange for him to go back another day to collect some more and when him gone him just call him friend dem and say kill di warder bwoy when him come," he said.

He said warders have even caused the deaths of other inmates because of the things some are willing to smuggle in for the right price.

Warders, he claimed, have in the past bought pad locks for prisoners, who are allowed to keep one of the keys while the other is slipped onto the bunch kept by the prison authorities.

He cited an incident in which an inmate was tipped off that he was to be killed on his return from court and was given a knife to defend himself.

When he returned to the prison he was searched and the knife found.

Another inmate who was in charge of ensuring that the knife was secured could not say how it came to be in the possession of the inmate to be killed and so he was hanged that night in his cell.

The warder recalled that his first act of corruption in the prison system was to allow what should have been a three-minute visit to an inmate to extend to an hour.

"When the prisoner (a notorious criminal whom he named) done him teck out a wad a money and start count it out," said the man. "Him was about to give me and him say yu too young, and so him give it to the green suit (ranked officer) and say him fi give me my share."

The warder said that he soon became "favoured among the prison population" as he was known for never confiscating ganja or phones.

"If ganja no in a prison, ah riot, because when a prisoner bun a spliff, that keep him calm fi the rest of the day, but when them no have nothing them edgy and will walk down the whole place fi get it and sometimes you haffi bust up all him head fi get him back into him cell," he said.

He said it was in their best interest to keep the inmates calm, especially since warders are outnumbered by at least 10 to one.

Prison, simply put he said, is a time bomb that can explode at anytime and the overcrowding at the facilities only compounds the problem.

Understaffing, he said, poses serious security risks as a section with over 100 inmates is manned sometimes by three warders.

"At the end of the day, I have to say that Jamaican prisoners are good because we could have had more riots," he said.
But a riot may be the farthest thing from some inmates' minds as they are kept busy operating thriving businesses behind bars.

The warder said some inmates operate shops in their cells, selling even some things stolen from the prison kitchen.
Some warders, he claimed, smuggled tin foods from the kitchen for inmates to stock their shops.

These goods, he claimed, are purchased by other inmates using a ticket book system.

The ticket book is purchased by visitors for inmates to buy goods at the prison tuck shop.

However, some inmates opt to buy from "illegal shops" where there is greater variety.

"So if the ticket book worth $500, the prisoner go to the other prisoner shop and get $250 worth of things fi the book," said the warder. "The prisoner in turn use the book and buy back $500 stock from the tuck shop which him in turn sell to the prisoners who have money. One guy I know in particular, when Christmas time him give me him money fi buy bicycle and tings fi him son."

Next: The warder tells what he said really happened on that day in 1993 when four death row inmates were killed and three warders injured, one of the bloodiest days at the St Catherine District Prison.

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