A deadly threat targeting a serving prison officer at a Caribbean correctional facility has sparked renewed calls for improved workplace safety, with the nation’s top prison officers’ union demanding swift and serious action to protect frontline staff.
Gerard Gordon, president of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), has voiced deep alarm over the recent incident at Teteron Barracks’ Tetron Holding Facility in Chaguaramas, where an inmate allegedly made an explicit death threat against an on-duty officer. The union leader emphasized that threats to correctional staff can never be dismissed as trivial, highlighting the already high-stakes, high-pressure environment that prison officers navigate daily to uphold public safety and institutional order.
Details of the incident, confirmed by local law enforcement, show that the 34-year-old officer, a resident of Princes Town, was carrying out routine duties around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday—distributing meals to the inmate population and conducting a scheduled medication check—when the 46-year-old inmate delivered the threat. According to the official report, the inmate told the officer he would kill him once the inmate was released from custody.
The accused offender has been held in custody since 2017, when he and a co-accused were charged with the 2014 murder of a man in Guyaguayare. Following the confrontation, the threatened officer first notified his senior command of the incident before formally filing a police report at the Carenage Police Station just after 11 a.m. on Sunday. Active investigations into the threat are currently ongoing, led by W/Cpl De Gazon.
Gordon stressed that the incident is far from an isolated outburst, and instead serves as a constant reminder of the tangible, life-altering risks that correctional officers face every time they report for work. The POA, he confirmed, stands unwaveringly in support of the targeted officer and all correctional staff across the country, who continue to carry out their professional duties despite widespread and well-documented hazards in the sector.
In a formal statement, the union is calling on relevant authorities to implement all necessary protective measures to safeguard prison officers working across the nation’s correctional system, and to ensure that all incidents of violence and threats against staff are addressed with the urgency and gravity they deserve.