SIC News Interview
The union leader, Frederico Morais, informs that Orlando Carvalho, who this Tuesday takes office as director general of Prison Serviceshas as a priority accelerating the recruitment of prison guards in order to increase the contingent “as quickly as possible”.
Frederico Morais, leader of the reveals on the SIC Notícias antenna that, despite the inauguration taking place this Tuesday, the new director general of Prison Services, Orlando Carvalho, has already been in office since last week. Regarding the state of the prison system, he guarantees that professionals in the sector “are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel”.
from to at the beginning of September, which led to the dismissal of the then general director, Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves, at the prison there was now a guard permanently in the inmates’ recreation area and a pilot experiment with thermal chambers began, reports Frederico Morais.
As for this technology, the union leader reveals that it had already been requested “a long time ago”.
“As soon as someone steps into the area they shouldn’t, the camera goes off and immediately activates the camera that is filming that area”, he explains.
He points out that prison officers have been “tireless in combating the lack of security in prisons” and mentions that professionals “not only point out the problems but also the solutions”.
“It is obvious that prison services have been completely abandoned over the last two decades,” he acknowledges.
He also says that the escape from Vale de Judeus caused the Government, finally, “looked at the prison system”:
“They gave us a voice, they wanted to listen to our problems and, finally, we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel”, he says.
“Getting prison services out of the hole they’ve fallen into”
With the support of the new director general of prison services hopes to be able to “lift prison services out of the hole they have fallen into”.
Frederico Morais informs that Orlando Carvalho’s priority is to accelerate the in order to increase the contingent “as quickly as possible”.
However, he assumes that there are few candidates, something that could change if the base salary increased, he considers.
“We are not here asking for anything more, nothing less than career entry to level 15, that is, 1,300 euros entry. We have 961, we will go to 1,026 from January. We are asking for entry to level 15, which is level 3 of the civil service career. That’s what we’re asking for, it’s more than fair for the roles we perform”, he assures.
Orlando Carvalho was until now director of the Coimbra prison establishment, after having also been director of the Aveiro and Vale de Judeus prisons.
The inauguration ceremony is scheduled for noon this Tuesday and will be attended by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Republic.
