105 graduate from prison rehab program

Kicking a bad habit is no easy task… but today over a hundred inmates at the Hattieville Prison are saying they have done just that thanks to an on-site addiction program. News Five’s Marion Ali was in Hattieville for the graduation celebrations.

Marion Ali, Reporting
These prison inmates have reason to celebrate having completed a three-month rehabilitation programme at the Hattieville Prison’s Ashcroft Rehabilitation Centre. The inmates graduated today from the programme, which offers new alternatives to their various addictions.

Leo Grant, Recovering Addict
“My life of addiction started when I was fifteen years old, drinking liquor, beer, wines, smoking cigarette and weed. I got addicted to these substances more and more as the years passed. Living with these addictions my life became hard. Then I got introduced to crime – the fastest and easiest-paying job I ever had. With my new job which I loved, I had plenty of time to rest; hang out, part; do whatever I pleased. On my twenty-second birthday I got the worst birthday gift. I never thought she would be so cruel, I never thought she’d be so demanding for I loved her, but she didn’t love me. Her name is Ms. Crack Cocaine. She made my life unmanageable and powerless. I started robbing and stealing regularly, doing it with no shame, nor love, no respect of others. She even made me go as far as robbing my own family of their household and personal possessions.”

Jose Melgar, Recovering Addict
“Every moment ah fi we life we have to practice these twelve steps yah. We have to remember dat everyday we have to admit that we are powerless.”

Orla Meda, Recovering Addict
“Sometimes when people got a problem especially dehn go drink. Den dah right yah deh, ih deh noh got no problem no more and still drink. But when you got problem, she no, I noh gwein to drink. Just for today I won’t drink or smoke. I she, I noh wah smoke today; only for today, you know. I seh only for today I noh wah smoke. I put the smoke right there because I noh wah smoke again, only for one day at a time.”

But while the inmates have shown their intent to turn their lives around, the project in which they are involved would not have been possible were it not for Lord Michael Ashcroft.

Lord Michael Ashcroft, Donor
“A number of years ago in Britain I used to be chairman of a charity called Action on Addiction, which was a charity that researched the causes of addiction and I became very heavily involved in both raising money and understanding the causes of addiction. And when John Woods approached me a few years ago to say that he wanted to put a rehab centre into Hattieville Prison I thought this was an absolute tremendous idea and that is what I gave some money at the time and you can see the type of programme that it has developed into, which is absolutely incredible.”

The one hundred and five graduates of the programme also included for the very first time, women, one of whom is Paulita Nunez, a civilian who gave up her freedom for three months to enroll. She was overcome by emotion upon her completion.

Paulita Nunez, Recovering Addict
“I will never have an answer as to why I drink but today I can detect situations and control my emotions so that I do not drink. I am grateful to my father in heaven for his unconditional love and for giving me the best parents in the world. Without their love and support and trust in God, I would have never seen how I was destroying my life and the lives of those who truly love me. I know that my life in recovery will be an endless journey. It will take a lot of tolerance, patience, wisdom and serenity.”

The inmates are living examples that addiction can come in all forms.

Viola Klein, Prefect, Hattieville Prison
“If I had had five percent of this programme in my life as a fifty-six year old woman, I wouldn’t end up here in prison.”

Marion Ali
“How do I know that when you are released from here, the first thing you noh going goh look fad ah wah stick of weed?”

Viola Klein
“Really, I noh smoke or I noh drink; sell it, and I can trust myself yeah. I can trust myself that with the help of God and the tools that have been given, I won’t go back.”

Marion Ali
“What will be your means of livelihood?”

Viola Klein
“Well, I have plans because I was used selling used clothes all the time and I didn’t have to sell the weed but through greed, which is another sin that affect us most of the time.”

Luis Arzu, Recovering Addict
“I mi deh eena jail from I mi fifteen and I come dah jail over and over and over I come dah jail and now and no time can’t learn eena life now and go outta jail, come back dah jail, goh outta jail, goh thief people and do crime. Sometimes I goh smoke cocaine and kill people and all too, you understand. I noh want seh deh thing deh thing deh but I go smoke cocaine and I come dah jail and di officers dehn seh Arzu, yoh lone come dah jail and come dah jail, and yoh di get old. And I come dah dis programme now and the programme teach me how fi be humble and obey people and noh thief people, noh do crime and noh hurt people fi dehn own money outta street yoh noh. I dah wah person weh can’t read and write but I got talent.”

Steven Terry, Recovering Addict
“From since I get yah I watch lotta ghetto youths drop, lotta youths just drop out deh right now and my advice to deh dah I dah just want deh hold up deh head. If I could goh out deh, I just going deh and talk to deh and give deh wah word of encouragement check, cause I know how ih feel. I dah from through Ghost Town, I does live through Bailar, Mayflower, check and I know how ih feel fi live eena di streets.”

While they’ve learnt how to deal with their addictions, Chief Executive Officer, John Woods, reminded the men and women that the challenge will be a permanent one and that they can in turn help others.

John Woods, C.E.O., Kolbe Foundation
“You also can counsel people in a way that other people that are trained counselors can’t because you have lived their misery, you have lived their hopelessness and because of what you’ve learned you can give them hope for the future. I just want to tell each and every one of you to continue the work, what you’ve learned in here and if you do mess up, get right back up and go again.”

Paulita Nunez
“I gave up everything and I took these ninety days for me, to find myself to see the things that were really bothering me and affecting my life in general. People start changing not when they see the light but when they start feeling the pain. To me I felt enough pain in my life and I decided I’ve had enough, I need to make this change. I did the programme with the females, I had an agenda, a time limit, no TV, whatever they went through, I went through along with them. I became a part of the females and they helped me grow a lot and mature in my formal recovery.”

Marion Ali

“The temptation will always be there. How will you control it?”

Paulita Nunez
“Well by now I am equipped and like I said, I can detect the situation. I can now think before I act. Think your thoughts, simple.”

Marion Ali
“Want a drink?”

Paulita Nunez
“No, I’ve had enough.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

Since the programme was introduced several years ago, over seven hundred inmates have graduated.