Meyers proposes Cg 2 Million amendment for Prison Staffing, tables motion to advance Ryan Gumbs Law

GREAT BAY--Member of Parliament Franklin Meyers has proposed redirecting Cg 2 million within the Ministry of Justice to strengthen staffing at the Point Blanche Prison, while also pointing out that approximately Cg 5.08 million has already been budgeted to address outstanding salary-related obligations to police personnel.

Separately, Meyers tabled a motion seeking resources to advance what he has proposed be called the Ryan Gumbs Law, legislation intended to address weaknesses in St. Maarten’s traffic and justice framework that came into sharper focus following the June 11, 2026 traffic collision that claimed the life of Ryan Gumbs.

The official amendment submitted by Meyers clarifies that the additional Cg 2 million would not go toward those police payments. Instead, the money would be transferred to the Justice Ministry’s gross wages and salaries allocation specifically for the recruitment and appointment of prison guards and other penitentiary personnel.

During his presentation of the amendment, Meyers referred separately to an existing amount of approximately Cg 5.08 million associated with corrections and outstanding salary entitlements for police personnel. That allocation remains distinct from the new Cg 2 million reallocation proposed in his written amendment.

According to the explanatory notes accompanying the amendment, strengthening personnel capacity at the prison is necessary to further improve the operational functioning and safety of the House of Detention.

The Cg 2 million would come from an existing Justice Ministry allocation for the cost of St. Maarten detainees being held in the Netherlands.

The amendment states that Minister of Justice Nathalie Tackling reached an agreement with the Netherlands under which the costs associated with St. Maarten prisoners detained there during the 2026 budget year will not be charged to St. Maarten. This makes it possible to reduce that allocation by Cg 2 million.

Meyers is proposing that the released funds instead be used to recruit and appoint prison guards and other penitentiary personnel, strengthening staffing at Point Blanche without increasing the overall Justice budget.

The amendment is therefore budget neutral. The total level of expenditure would remain unchanged, with Cg 2 million simply moved from detention costs in the Netherlands to salaries and wages for additional prison personnel.

Meyers’ reference to the existing Cg 5.08 million for police personnel remains important because it distinguishes two separate Justice obligations: funding already provided to deal with outstanding police personnel payments, and the new Cg 2 million reallocation he is proposing specifically to strengthen the prison workforce.

Ryan Gumbs Law

Meyers first proposed the legislation during Parliament’s urgent meeting on road safety in July, when he called on all 15 MPs to work together on a comprehensive measure rather than allowing the issue to become partisan. At the time, he brought forward draft driving-under-the-influence legislation previously prepared by former MP Claude Peterson and suggested using that work as a starting point.

A central issue Meyers identified is St. Maarten’s existing framework for dealing with impaired driving. During the earlier parliamentary discussion, he noted that the country does not currently have the necessary legal framework for breath-alcohol testing and argued that legislation should establish clearer mechanisms for detecting, proving and prosecuting driving under the influence.

The proposed Ryan Gumbs Law has not yet been finalized into one complete piece of legislation. Meyers has instead described it as a framework through which Parliament can address the legal gaps exposed by the Gumbs case, including impaired driving, breath testing, legal alcohol limits and other weaknesses within the traffic enforcement system. Previous discussions surrounding the initiative have also raised questions about how criminal proceedings are handled when a suspect is simultaneously subject to immigration or deportation proceedings.

Gumbs died following a collision on Brouwers Road on June 11 while riding a scooter. The case subsequently generated public concern not only over road safety but also over the handling of the suspect, who was released from criminal detention and later deported while criminal proceedings remained pending.

Meyers has maintained that the legislation should not be viewed as belonging to him, his faction or any one side of Parliament. He has called for MPs to collectively examine the existing draft legislation, identify additional shortcomings exposed by the case and develop a law capable of reducing the likelihood that another family will face similar circumstances.

His latest motion addresses one of the practical obstacles to advancing the legislation: funding for the legal work required to prepare it. Meyers is asking Parliament to use money from the Parliament Secretariat’s legal allocation so that the drafting and legislative process can proceed.

He tied that request to the continued loss of life on St. Maarten’s roads, citing seven traffic deaths in 2024, four in 2025 and nine thus far in 2026. For Meyers, those figures make strengthening the law around impaired driving and road safety an immediate national priority rather than legislation that should remain waiting for available resources.

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