Altogether 957 persons, including 49 children, will be released in a bid to minimize the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in the prisons. And that’s out of a total prison population 3,959  both Convicted and on Remand, as of April 2nd.

Here is the breakdown of the prisoners  slated for release, as provided by attorney General Faris al Rawi  on Friday morning :

84 -convicted of summary offences

62 -convicted summarily of indictable offences

   1 – convicted of an indictable offence

33 – children convicted of summary and indictable offences

16 – children charged with summary and indictable offences who were granted bail pending an appeal

44- serving terms of imprisonment in default of maintenance fines:

137 -charged with summary offences but unable to access bail

459- convicted of summary or indictable offences who have sentenced to terms exceeding one year, but are In their final year of imprisonment:

121- persons have already been lawfully discharged by the Commissioner of Prisons under the Prisons’ Rules.

In addition, the AG  the Judiciary bought and retrofitted two containers at cost of TT$70,000  each to set up virtual courts in the prisons as he promised that by next weeks there will be12 virtual courts. There will be four each at the Golden Grove Prison and the  Maximum Security Prison (MSP)  with one each at the  Port of Spain Prison, the Women s prison at Golden Grove and one each at the ECRC and YTRC. With these plans in place, the AG said the government stands to save at least TT$60-80 Million annually in prison transport costs.