By NALINEE SEELAL Wednesday, December 30 2009

Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security, Donna Cox, who has responsibility for the nation’s prisons has ordered Prisons Commissioner Martin Martinez to submit a full report on claims of overpricing at the canteens at the various prisons. The probe is to last one week.

Minister Cox told Newsday yesterday, she has ordered the Ag Commissioner to submit a full report. The move resulted after members of the public expressed concern over the prices at the prisons’ canteen.

She said, “I have been hearing of certain discrepancies with regards to pricing at the canteens in the prisons, but when this was communicated to me officially by concerned persons, I raised the matter with the Commissioner of Prisons and I am hoping to get a report in one week’s time, so the matter can be dealt with.”

Newsday understands that if any discrepancies are detected, the Fraud Squad can be called in. Efforts to contact Prisons Commissioner Martin Martinez on the matter yesterday proved futile, but sources revealed that the Commissioner has requested from the prisons canteen, the prices of all items sold in canteens at the various prisons.

Yesterday angry members of the public, some of whom are pensioners, and those who depend on public assistance from the Government complained bitterly of the prices they are forced to pay when visiting loved ones at the Remand and convicted sections of the prisons.

They said that it is already a burden to be away from their families who are prisoners, and paying steep prices for items to give to their loved ones has now reached “boiling point.”

A pensioner from Biche whose relative is at the Remand section at the Golden Grove prison in Arouca said that he has already written Amnesty International and other bodies hoping to have the matter addressed and rectified.

He quoted the prices of some of the items sold at the canteen: Gatorade $11.50 – 1 litre; 1 Jalitre – – Coke $34.50; Small Supligen – $10.35; 1 small pack of Lasko Milk Powder – $9.20; 1 Massive Coke – $6.20; Kerrygold Milk 400 g – $23.00;

Small Crix – $8.05 per pack; Vanilla cookies – $6.90; 1 small Kiss Cake – $3.50. The pensioner said that he has compared the prices at the prisons canteen with those at supermarkets and shops, and he has discovered major discrepancies. He noted that based on the information supplied to him by his relatives and others, toiletries, jerseys, pants, paper cups and other items purchased by Government for prisoners are also being sold at the prisons canteen, and members of the public who visit inmates are forced to purchase these items.