National Parliament Member MP Paulino Monteiro urges the Ministry of Justice to recruit new guards to work at the Gleno Prison for women in the municipality of Ermera.
The MP alleges Gleno Prison lack prison guards.
According to MP Monteiro currently there are only 35 guards who watch over 85 prisoners in Gleno Prison.
“This is not enough, how can a small number of guards, guard many prisoners. New guards need to be recruited,” said MP Monteiro, at the National Parliament.
The MP said also that the government is responsible for the recruitment of new prison guards and that it is necessary to assess their skills and make sure that they are eligible and work professionally.
The Director of the Gleno Prison Service and Reinsertion, Nito dos Santos said Gleno Prison did have a lack of guards but this has not had an impact on their work.
“This doesn’t constrain us from working well and for our work to run smoothly,” said Director Santos in Gleno Prison, Ermera.
He said Gleno Prison has 35 guards and from this number, two are undertaking comparative studies in Indonesia, for the time being, there are only 33 guards in active duty.
In response, Justice Minister Ivo Valente said his Ministry is in the process of drawing up plans to overcome this problem.
“We are looking at ways to increase the number of prison guards,” said Minister Valente.
