Prison guards claim watchtowers would have stopped the broad-daylight escape
Former Justice Ministers Francisca Van Dunem and Catarina Sarmento e Castro both believe prison watchtowers are ‘an obsolete security model’ – even though prison guards affirm the exact opposite.
Almost three weeks on from the embarrassing jailbreak at Alcoentre’s high-security prison, parliamentary hearings are taking place to try and establish ‘what went wrong’.
Guards and indeed their former governor have given their opinions via the press, but this was the first time for a ‘grilling’ of political ‘experts’: the former Socialist Justice Ministers Francisca Van Dunem and Catarina Sarmento e Castro, with the former being the first to stress that having a fixed guard in a guardhouse for hours watching over a perimeter “is not a model for the future”
“When I left the Ministry of Justice (MJ) in March 2022, I was not aware of, nor was it reported to me, nor were there any constraints associated with the security of Vale de Judeus prison”, she said in her opening speech, during which “she insisted on establishing the facts about security issues at Vale de Judeus prison”, writes Lusa.
Ms Van Dunem emphasised that “there was no political decision to knock down towers”, since when she took office there were no watchtowers, only “ruins, iron, mortar” with “risk of use” and danger to those who used them.
What she did point out (bringing this subject to public notice perhaps for the first time) was the need for MPs to question whether or not the motion sensors associated with surveillance cameras had been working on the day five men so confidently strode to freedom – and to clarify (if they weren’t) why they weren’t.
On the issue of watchtowers, Catarina Sarmento e Castro referred to what Lusa describes as “a paradigm shift towards video surveillance systems“.
Addressing the same parliamentary committee, former deputy director of the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP), Pedro Veigas Santos, explained that the demolition of watchtowers at Vale de Judeus prison in 2017 was done due to a lack of money:manning the four towers “would always cost over a million euros”, he explained – thus surveillance cameras were seen as the most budget-friendly option
Catarina Sarmento e Castro, who used much of her hearing to list measures taken during her mandate to improve the prison system, “emphasising her ‘personal commitment’ in this area, with 30 visits to prisons”, highlighted the multiannual plan for justice, which provides for prison renovations, more investment in vehicles and security equipment and the closure of the most problematic prison in the country in terms of human rights, Lisbon prison.
She pointed out future responsibilities to MPs, “emphasising the timing of the discussion of the next State Budget, and recalling that the last one provided for the largest amount ever allocated to the justice sector”, which was still “not enough”. “We need to carry on this wave of investment”, she said.
Considering five men were able to escape Vale de Judeus in broad daylight, this statement goes without question.
Since September 7, the five escapees – two Portuguese: Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira and Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro; a Georgian, Shergili Farjiani, an Argentine, Rodolf José Lohrmann, and Briton Mark Cameron Roscaleer – appear to have expertly ‘vanished’. There has literally been ‘no sign of them’, say news anchors (although if authorities did have a handle on where they are, they would be unlikely to broadcast it before recapturing the runaways).
Source material: LUSA
