After standing as a central institution of Trinidad and Tobago’s correctional system for more than two and a half centuries, the aging Port of Spain Prison located on Frederick Street is poised to close its doors permanently, wrapping up a historic chapter of the country’s penal history. The national government has launched a full decommissioning process for the facility, with inmate transfers already in progress and on track to wrap up by the end of November 2024.
Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander confirmed the timeline and details of the shutdown in an exclusive interview with the *Sunday Express* on Saturday, noting that the multi-phase transfer operation first kicked off on September 21. The decommissioning project is structured in three distinct phases, and the first step — relocating high-risk inmates from the historic Port of Spain Prison to the country’s Remand Prison — has already been successfully completed.
The remaining two phases will focus on reconfiguring inmate housing across the country’s correctional facilities to accommodate the full shutdown. Up next, the Remand Prison will absorb inmates currently held at the Extended Remand Facility (ERF), clearing space for death-row inmates from Port of Spain Prison. In the final phase, 150 convicted offenders will be moved from the closing facility to three existing institutions: the Maximum Security Prison, Carrera Convict Prison, and Golden Grove Prison.
To accommodate the additional inmate population at the receiving facilities, upgrades and adjustments are already underway. At the Remand Prison, which currently has a maximum capacity of 750 inmates, crews are installing new beds and refurbishing cell locks to meet updated safety and security protocols, alongside other critical infrastructure improvements. Alexander confirmed that project leaders have advised the decommissioning will stay on schedule so long as all critical upgrades are addressed as planned.
According to Alexander, the push to close the outdated facility came directly from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who directed the government to move forward with the shutdown in a timely manner. “All is well and going smoothly. We look forward to a new beginning for that place. As I said before…the Prime Minister…could not see the continuation of that place. She instructed us to make sure that this happens, and we were trying to do it in a timely manner,” Alexander stated.
The Prime Minister and her cabinet will lead decisions on the future redevelopment of the prime Frederick Street site once decommissioning is complete. The closure of the old Port of Spain Prison is a core component of the government’s broader correctional system revitalization plan, which also includes constructing a new state-of-the-art correctional facility outside of Port of Spain, an initiative Alexander said he fully supports.
When asked about widespread public concern that transferring inmates to existing facilities would exacerbate longstanding issues of prison overcrowding, Alexander noted that targeted mitigation measures are already being implemented to improve conditions across the system. Beyond infrastructure adjustments, he emphasized that the broader goal of the reform is to restore the correctional system’s role as a deterrent to crime, a function he said the outdated, mismanaged Port of Spain Prison had lost.
Acknowledging public conversations about overcrowding, Alexander argued that the most effective long-term solution is discouraging people from committing crimes that lead to incarceration in the first place. “The prison must be a deterrent and the fact is, it is no longer that. The prisons are now like a home, a residential area, where you can do what you want, when you want, how you want, and we are stopping that,” he said.
Discussions about closing the Port of Spain Prison have circulated among policymakers for decades, but Alexander emphasized that the current administration is the first to turn that decades-long talk into tangible action. He framed the facility as an outdated blight on the capital’s central urban core, saying, “This prison is an eyesore. To me, it has become a public nuisance and it is time for it to go. It is time for something new to be developed into the city.”
Beyond the decommissioning plan, Alexander addressed two other pressing correctional sector issues during the interview: a recent high-profile incident involving a prison officer and renewed calls from the Prison Officers’ Association to issue firearms to all serving officers. He commended the actions of a prison officer who fatally shot a home invader while defending his family in a recent attack.
On the question of issuing firearms to correctional officers, Alexander said he supports the idea of granting Firearm User’s Licences to all eligible public safety officers — including firefighters, coast guard members, and prison staff — but added that not all uniformed officers meet the strict integrity requirements for holding a licence. He noted that a small number of officers have abused their positions and access to help criminal actors carry out illegal activity.
Alexander called on the Prison Officers’ Association to encourage all of its members to uphold high standards of ethical conduct in their roles. “If other persons are paying them outside of the service, well, that’s on them. All I ask is for brave men and women to serve with integrity, dignity, and an understanding that they are there to protect and serve persons, not to protect and serve themselves alone,” he said.