Why Did Prisoners Escape? A Perspective from an Ex-Con

The memory of his life behind bars is triggered by the recent calculated escape of twenty-eight prisoners from the central prison in Hattieville through a dreaded area of the prison compound known as AdSeg.  Pascascio says that in his days, the area was referred to as “Somalia.”  While he believes what has happened is wrong, he says that he can understand why the prisoners escaped.

Trevor Clifton Pascascio Marin, Ex-Convict

“They just had a big prison break. Dehn man dehn have to gone; dehn man di suffer. Ina di prison weh dehn guys dehn escape from, dehn call that place Somalia. Weh unu know Somalia as? People weh di starve cause when yo go back dehn, yo could go di size ah this brethren, but when yo come out, yo got di size ah me – when yo go back ah Somalia, weh dehn call di AdSeg back ah prison. Rice with stew chicken for ten years after a while, yo stop walk. Yo have people back there right now weh literally stop walk cause dehn noh have no nourishment ina dehn bone.”

Trevor Clifton Pascascio Marin

Duane Moody

“Are you saying that what was done over the weekend, that jailbreak was justifiable to an extent?”

Trevor Clifton Pascascio Marin

“Yes sir. If you lock up wah animal and you just beat ahn and barely give ahn food, yo barely give ahn water; ih di bark to yo and you noh study ahn, ih wah try find ih way out. Ih will find ih way out. There is a different way to deal with dehn brethrens that they noh have to go through weh dehn di go through. You supposed to deal with the man dehn that they know what, me myself wah make up my mind that I will do my time. I noh have to give trouble, I noh have to try escape; I wah do mi time cause it convenient for me to do mi time and get out.”