Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II says he decided to fire Prisons Director Gerald Enos and Acting Director Gina Harrison to avert a threatened strike by corrections officers and prison guards.
"The corrections officers have been asking for a meeting with the leadership of the prison system for about a year now and no one is listening," James said.
"I had to make a change to avoid this job action by 45 corrections officers," he added.
In a broadcast interview on WVWI Radio One, James said although he spoke to Attorney General Iver Stridiron prior to taking action, both were not in agreement that firing Harrison and Enos was the proper approach.
"I did give him a call to let him know of my decision and explained that it was the first decisive step to address the problems in the Bureau of Corrections," James said.
"Although he did not necessarily agree with me, I believe that the course of action I took was proper, after all, the Attorney General knew of my concerns with the Corrections Bureau since he assumed the leadership of the Justice Department earlier this year."
James suggested that Stridiron did nothing to address the myriad of concerns being expressed by prison employees about conditions, morale and the leadership of the system.
The Lt. Governor expressed confidence that he has Gov. Charles Turnbull’s support on his firing of the top management of the Corrections Bureau.
"He has supported me all along, there is no rift between us and I know he will support my decision." James said he saw no need to inform the Governor of his action because, "Once the governor is off island, I’m the governor," he added.
