WITH inmates behind prison bars still masterminding murders and influencing criminal activity via cellular phones, Security Minister Dr Horace Chang says the Government will be adding surveillance cameras to the arsenal of tools for policing correctional facilities.

“We have just concluded a contract to introduce a camera system, a more extensive system, in correctional facilities and build out the intelligence service within there,” Dr Chang told the Jamaica Observer on Monday during an emergency press briefing at Jamaica House.

The briefing followed a meeting of the National Security Council which discussed, among other things, the slaughter of eight Jamaicans at Cherry Tree Lane, Clarendon, on Sunday and the injury of nine others, in what law enforcers say was an act of reprisal for another killing in the parish.

According to the police, players from multiple gangs — including persons overseas and those behind bars — played a role in what has been described as “an act of terror” which left a seven-year-old boy amongst the fatalities and a one-year and eight-month-old baby among the injured.

Speaking with the Observer on Monday, Dr Chang said the build out of the surveillance infrastructure in the prisons will increase the gains made under the Corrections (Amendment) Act 2021 which was passed to enable tighter control of prohibited articles, such as electronic devices, being transported in and out of correctional facilities. According to data obtained from the Court Administration Division (CAD), between January 2021 and March 2024, 10 people have been charged and prosecuted, with six pleading guilty.

“The work is proceeding; we have a new director of corrections who has extensive experience in the security area and we are working with the entire correctional service to strengthen our intelligence product from the area as well as apply the law as required,” Chang said.

According to information contained on the website of the national security ministry, bidding documents were in July of 2023 issued for entities for the “supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of [a] CCTV surveillance system at the Horizon Adult Remand correctional facility” under the ministry’s Security Strengthening Project (SSP).

Bidding documents were also issued in March of this year for the “installation of fibre optic cables for the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Department of Correctional Services high-priority sites and Ministry of National Security agencies” under the Security Strengthening Project.

According to the ministry’s website, the Security Strengthening Project is currently involved in deploying fibre optic cables and accessories across: Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon. It said, “the primary goal of the project is to establish a robust fibre optic infrastructure, facilitating essential connectivity for applications focused on improving the conviction rate for murders in Jamaica”.

“To achieve this objective the project has defined specific goals, including reducing the overall murder rate, enhancing the success rate of police investigations into murders, and providing training for police officers in utilising technology for crime prevention,” it said further.

The increasing use of telecommunication devices by inmates to maintain contact with criminal networks outside the confines of correctional institutions has seen incarcerated criminals — some of whom are reputed gang leaders — influencing criminal gangs and ordering killings from behind bars.

In the most recent demonstration of this before the courts, alleged leader of the Westmoreland-based King Valley Gang Derval Williams, otherwise called Lukie, and his sidekick Christon Grant in July were declared “guilty of conspiring” — via cellular phones — to murder a Crown witness while behind bars at Horizon Adult Remand Centre in 2020, the same year they were let off on anti-gang charges in the King Valley Gang Trial.

Supreme Court judge, Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell, in her summation and verdict, said the court accepted the evidence that there was communication between Williams and Grant, on their respective phones, by way of text messages and WhatsApp voice notes. The sentencing of the men has been set for the next court term, which begins in September.

Recordings of conversations between alleged members of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang and convicted leader of the One Don faction, Andre “Blackman” Bryan, while he was behind bars, played a critical role in that trial — which began in 2021 and concluded in 2023 — when 15 of 33 accused were found guilty of crimes ranging from murder and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition to membership in a criminal organisation.