PRISONS officers said yesterday they were uncertain what may happen this week with regard to visits by relatives and friends of inmates at the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca, following a scuffle between visitors and prisons officers on Friday afternoon.

Ceron Richards, speaking on behalf of the Prisons Officers Association, said officers were not in the business of tampering with visits to the prison in any way, but ’we want to be able to do our jobs in a safe manner.’

Friday afternoon’s incident comes on the heels of two other incidents which left one prisons officer dead and another nursing gunshot wounds.

The three incidents were not related, but since the November 7 murder of prison officer Ian Seegobin, prisons officers have been making a call to be armed while off duty, better security around the jails, along with other security measures.

The Sunday Express was reliably informed that around 5 p.m. on Friday, ’the man in charge’ of visits to the prison suggested to visitors that instead of a 15-minute visit, the time be shortened to ten minutes to facilitate the large number of visitors that day.

The visitors reportedly agreed, except for one male visitor who was allegedly ’very unhappy’ at the reduced time and became unruly.

While being escorted off the premises, the man reportedly struck a senior officer on the head.

’He was dealt with,’ said a source, but other visitors, standing along the Golden Grove Road, saw what was happening and began pelting stones at the prisons officers.

Prisons officers from the Emergency Response Unit, along with police officers from the Arouca Police Station, were called in.

According to reports, the man who struck the officer and a woman who was caught pelting stones were arrested and charged and are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

Since the beginning of this month, there had been two attacks against prisons officers.

In the first incident, 25-year-old Anthony Sinanan was shot moments after he exited the Golden Grove prison in Arouca on November 2. Sinanan survived the shooting but sustained gunshot wounds to his legs. The second incident occurred last week Saturday night when Ian Seegobin, 34, was fatally shot while visiting relatives at Cemetery Street in Five Rivers, Arouca.