The sod turning ceremony for the construction of the Anthony Pantin Reintegration Centre (APRC) at San Rafael took place on Tuesday, February 21.

Conceived by the Catholic Commission for Social Justice ( CCSJ), it is hoped the Centre will provide a response to crime in Trinidad and Tobago .

Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the CCSJ, said the country's “56% recidivism rate is too high. The safety and security of our communities demand that we seek to rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into society so they can live productive lives”.

Among those attending the function were Commissioner of Prisons, John Rougier, Inter-Religious Organisation representative, Rev Cyril Paul, FEEL CEO and Pantin family representative, Clive Pantin, the Board of Directors of the Trinidad and Tobago Reintegration Foundation, members of the Management Committee of the APRC and representatives of the San Rafael Village Council.

Parish priest Fr Michael Moses opened the ceremony with a short prayer, in which he asked for God's guidance for those working to make the Centre “a home of rehabilitation and restoration” and for the ex-prisoners who “have plans for a future fully integrated in society”. Fr Matthew d'Hereaux, Chair of the Standing Committee on Restorative Justice and Post-Prison Support , was invited to address the audience of approximately 100 people.

He declared: “Great is a Church, great is a nation who will painstakingly reach out to the marginalised, despised and rejected.

“Impoverished is the Church, impoverished is the nation who through the burden of blindness has rejected its very own. Great is the partnership between the Church and the State that pursues a justice that seeks to restore communities and encourage and facilitate reparation and restoration, the damage caused by crime.”

Fr d'Hereaux issued several warnings, saying if society failed to welcome ex-offenders back into the fold, organised crime would. If the State did not put its resources behind reintegration, the drug lords would.

He noted that prisoners themselves were clamouring for social, financial and psychological support upon their release from prison.

Echoing Fr d'Hereaux, Gordon Husbands, Chief Welfare Officer, Trinidad & Tobago Prison Service, noted society did not create enough opportunities for ex-offenders to enable them to restore their lives.

Restorative justice, he said, required transformation of lives and questioned whether penal policies – though they provided prisoners with a trade, academic qualifications and sport and cultural activities – touched the souls and consciences of offenders. What was needed, he stressed, was a new philosophy among prisoners that would empower them to turn their lives around.

“Reintegration methods need to be combined with restorative methods,” he said.

A call to other prisoners

Michael Hague, inmate at the Port of Spain Prison for the past 19 years, made a rather unique presentation with his “Ode to Resettlement: Restorative Justice, Real or Unreal?”, followed by his calypso, Prison to Praise .

The poem sets up a debate about restorative justice and whether the new systems truly provide real opportunities for prisoners to grow and develop. Listing the skills he had learned - reading, writing and anger management, he remarked that prison programmes allowed him to transform himself.

“I still don't know if society is ready for me or willing to give me a chance to amend for the harm I caused over time,” he recited. But, in reply, he stated that the CCSJ and Standing Committee on Restorative Justice and Post-Prison Support continued to support him in preparing for his release from prison by providing housing and job opportunities to help him take up his role in society.

His calypso was a call to other prisoners and ex-offenders to avail themselves of prison rehabilitation programmes.

“ One man declares this message to you ,” he sang out, “ This life of drugs and violence wouldn't do .”

Through the prison programmes, he said, he was able to change his thinking and promised “ there is a better life ahead for us all/just listen to your hearts and bend them to my call./Lift your heads up high: you will see better days …”

Fr Matthew d'Hereaux

Fr Matthew d'Hereaux, Archbishop Edward Gilbert, Minister Anthony Roberts, Leela Ramdeen and Ann Maria Garcia-Brooks at the sod turning ceremony

Archbishop Gilbert turns the sod to mark the start of construction of the Anthony Pantin Reintegration Centre in San Rafael.

Republic Bank's Manager Group Corporate Communications, Anna Maria Garcia-Brooks, said through the bank's “Power to Make a Difference programme”, it has pledged $40 million over the next five years toward the APRC, with an initial $2 million for the construction. This was done, she said, in response to the increasing crime sweeping the nation.

People who got themselves caught in the web of criminal activity often did not know how to get themselves out, she observed. Incarceration did not automatically cause people to change their habits and suddenly do the right thing.

With the pressures of providing for themselves or their families and lacking the skills to earn a legitimate living, they often reverted to the gangs and criminal lifestyle, she added.

“Rehabilitation becomes a matter of creating options for former prisoners to help them along a path to becoming more productive members of society.

Republic Bank is pleased to align itself with an organisation that recognises the fact that we need to help those who have stumbled and fallen and who, with help, have the will to pull themselves out of their quagmire,” Garcia-Brooks said.

Leela Ramdeen lamented the high recidivism rate and added: “Our society seems to prefer punishment to rehabilitation , and retribution to restoration. (We) fail to recognise prisoners as human beings.”

Failure to reintegrate offenders into society meant communities would continue to feel unsafe and insecure, she said.

Ramdeen said society should establish and enforce laws to protect itself and advance the common good and argued that the common good was undermined when society gave up on those who have offended.

The CCSJ will be drawing on the expertise of psychologists, social workers and therapists to meet the physical, social and psychological needs of those using the Centre.

“The APRC will enable us to stand in solidarity and compassion to heal those who have gone off the rails and bring them back into the fold of humanity,” Ramdeen said, adding that the APRC's programmes would include literacy classes and drug rehabilitation, in addition to ensuring prisoners leave with marketable job skills.

In his address, Archbishop Edward said the idea for the APRC sprang from the desire to expand the area of social justice beyond poverty alleviation, to include restorative justice.

He praised Ramdeen and Fr d'Hereaux for taking up the cause of the late Archbishop Anthony Pantin - his personal ministry to prisoners - and elevating it to a corporate level.

“This is important,” he said, because “if you want to do good over the long run, you have to structure. Structure provides continuity.” Archbishop Gilbert also noted the importance of involving many people to achieve one's goals.

“And this is what's been done. It's taken three years but it was very carefully planned and I would suspect we're all going to be very proud of what comes up here,” he said.

He expressed the hope that this initiative would be repeated throughout Trinidad and Tobago “by the Church, in collaboration with the Government, in collaboration with the private sector”.

“… in collaboration with the $40 million from Republic Bank,” he added with a smile.

Anthony Roberts, Minister of Social Development, gave the feature address and described the APRC project as remarkable, he said it offered San Rafael and the rest of the community an opportunity to influence a group of citizens to turn from a life of crime to contributing to the development of society.

He lauded the CCSJ and Standing Committee for Restorative Justice and Post-Prison Care for initiating the project.

Roberts said research has shown that ex-offenders in Trinidad and Tobago faced several challenges that stemmed from society's non-acceptance. A large section of society “Believes that when a person commits a wrong, they must be locked up permanently”, he lamented.

He said society needed to recognise that prior to committing crimes, the offenders lived within the community and, as such, society must take some responsibility for their behaviour. He added that society should consider the mitigating circumstances that might have led someone to a life of crime. It might be a result of neglect, abandonment or lack of leadership in the home, he noted.

Social interventions in fighting crime

While keeping in step with criminal elements meant adopting sophisticated anti-crime measures, the minister raised the need for social interventions in fighting crime. Deviance in the society often stemmed from a breakdown in the moral fibre of the family, he said, and called for the rebuilding of the family unit.

He added that the Church also played a critical role in developing society and should not be passive about it.

He said too the families of inmates must recognise their role in assisting them to take their place when they returned to society and not make it difficult for them since this could influence a return to criminal activity.

Roberts said a national parenting programme was under development and would reintroduce the values and standards which appeared to be so absent in society.

In restructuring reintegration programmes for ex-prisoners, he added, the Government has adopted restorative justice as its philosophical framework. He said the Government would educate employees of penal institutions and the general public on a system of justice rooted in rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Archbishop Gilbert then asked for God's blessings on the APRC and those who would use it, before several officials took turns turning the sod to mark the start of construction.