Prison family day shows progress at Hattieville
Lock them up and throw away the key. That statement pretty much summarizes the majority view in Belize on what to do with criminals. But somewhere between conviction and eventual release there is the painful necessity of dealing with those whose deeds have landed them in prison. How inmates are treated during their incarceration may affect what they do after they’re let out… And today the foundation that runs Belize’s only penal institution invited us to observe that while conditions are far from perfect, there is a new look–and attitude–at Hattieville.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
All the music, food and people might have been reminiscent of a day at the Agricultural Show Grounds, but this is as far from the fair as you can get…it is in fact the first-ever family day at the Belize Central Prison.
The event is just one of the rehabilitation initiatives organised by the Kolbe Foundation, which has managed the prison for the past year. Today, inmates spent the day cooking food, supplied by the prison, for their guests…but they all say the best part was the physical interaction–an activity that is forbidden regular visiting days.
Kenneth Tillett, Inmate, 1 ½ years
“Well normally when you have visits here at the prison you don’t have contact visits, you’re between a cage and you really can’t express yourself and be with your family members how you really want to. So a day like this is very special because as you could see, I could walk around the compound, play with the children and do great things with them.”
These scenes are a far cry from the images that have long been associated with the correctional facility. Hattieville’s history has been tainted with grisly killings, inhumane living conditions and poor security.
But, today it’s a very different story. By all accounts, the changes at the prison have been nothing less than phenomenal.
Norbert Guzman, Inmate, 8 months
“Well for right now, the prison itself the hold down the violence and everything. I happy fi this day… It could have been better, although mi family no reach yet. Everything straight otherwise though.”
Inmate
“Better than first, yes. It’s all good same way though cause dah timing fi we go home directly, we noh like jail.”
Henry Hulse, Inmate, 6 years
“You realize that people been killed here. People get stabbed once in a while here since that, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.”
Janelle Chanona
“Do you feel safer now?”
Henry Hulse
“I feel great and safe. I feel comfortable doing my time and feel like I could do something with myself and not be afraid of the next guy. It’s different now.”
Howard Blease, Chief Security Officer
“We will do our best, we believe that we have come a long way in reducing incidents. The last two incidents we’ve experienced were ones that we did not have a handle on. And we will find that as we continue we may have additional incidents. It’s just our goal now to keep incidents down to a minimum.”
John Woods, Chairman, Kolbe Foundation
“It has certainly been exciting. I haven’t been bored at all. We came in here, we had very few beds, we didn’t have much of a kitchen. We didn’t have much of anything.”
Rotarian John Woods is one of the people who has made a difference here.
John Woods
“I think the attitude before was just to lock them up and throw away the key. And that’s really what we found when we came in here. So many people crowded into a cell and just left there. No beds, no plumbing, up to twelve people I saw in an eight by twelve area. If you draw that out on a floor and imagine twelve people in there, we’ve seen it.”
“This first year has been trying to get the infrastructure in place to fulfil Kolbe’s the aims of giving these people the environment to where they can find the Lord and if they can’t find the Lord, at least find out there’s a better way to live their life. And this year we are really going to get after giving them the tools to learn how to live that better life.”
The non-profit organisation has been pushing faith-based rehab programs, funded by the government and local business houses. Kolbe uses media like an internal P.A. system, which broadcasts positive programs like Christian music and anger management instructions.
John Woods
“You know there’s all these groups around town and everything and they have a message to give. But they can’t get the people to come and receive that message. We have a captive audience here, we have people here that are not happy with the way their life has gone and they’re ended up here. They’re separated from their loved ones, they are not too happy with the way things have gone and they are hungry for the word of Jesus or they are hungry to learn how to live a better life. And that’s what we’re all about, we need to turn these people around.”
For the thousand and more men and women who call Hattieville home, life behind bars now includes an opportunity to do handicraft, farming or participate in sporting events–all in a very spiritual setting. But as in any prison, many of these faces belong to habitual offenders, which is why management is planning to help the inmates with life on the outside.
Jean Goemaat, Prison Fellowship International
“Always before, we’ve had programs here. I’ve been here, this is my seventh year, but the one thing that was missing was the one on one, very close one on one and the aftercare programme that goes with it. Usually when they are out of prison, then they are out of prison and now we have an aftercare programme where every inmate will have a mentor, they’ll have a church that will adopt them, they’ll have support groups, hopefully we can get jobs for everybody, some type of a job for them. And we will plan if they are leery about going back into the neighbourhoods they came out of, we’ll try to place them in a different location.”
Anthony Chanona, Belmopan Mayor
“Although we fail, we try to do the right thing and we make a choice to do the right thing. God is going to bless us and he will see us through, because we all make mistakes.”
Prison officials estimate that only twenty percent of the inmates had a friend or family member visit them today, and while the authorities are giving these prisoners every opportunity to become constructive citizens with or without family support, in the end, they are ones that have to make that decision.
Rojelia Choc, Mother, San Pedro Columbia, Toledo
“This dah the first and the last, I noh the come back yah again. I come yah because this is this first time he come yah. So I done tell him, I give a person one chance, noh two; only animal you give two chance because they kind of a short of hearing, but human, you have them one chance. That’s why I come yah and I even…me and his Pa quarrel because his Pa gone last night lef we, so we have to catch the bus to go back dah P.G. I tell ah no man, I want have a chat with this boy…he’s my one and only son, so I done tell ah that if he noh behave now he noh behave again. If he goh out deh and do the same thing, that means he no wah behave and change his life.”
Today is the Catholic feast day of St. Kolbe, who gave his life for an inmate, a sacrifice which earned him the title of Patron Saint of Prisoners.
