Marriage vows renewed on Prison Island

HISTORY was created yesterday at the Carrera Island Prison when former inmate, Pastor Antonio Sealy, renewed his marriage vows after 35 years, making a dream he has carried for the last four years come true. In full view of visitors and 500 convicts at the prison, the Pastor said, “I do” to his wife Agnes. In a ceremony that lasted over two hours, laced with a tinge of nervousness and the frills of blessing and exchanging of rings, cake-cutting and a serenade by members of the Carrera Island Band “De Off Shore Boys,” the couple pledged their love and kissed each other several times. Rev Brian Skinner, who officiated at the ceremony, took the opportunity to congratulate the couple and reminded guests that most of the convicts at the island prison were unmarried, and had they been married, in most cases they would not have been there.

He also advised the Government to spend more money on prison reform and teach the inmates about family and marriage, which would help in the reduction of crime. Commissioner of Prisons Carlo Mahoney, who deemed the occasion historic, not only in Trinidad and Tobago but in the wider Caribbean, being the first of its kind anywhere, expressed his pleasure with the ceremony and said this was just one of the many parts of his prison reform programme. A teary-eyed groom, head of the Rescue Mission Church and the Pan for Jesus group in Brooklyn, New York explained he decided to “re-marry” his wife at Carerra to show the inmates there was life after prison. “I have never given up on the inmates at Carerra and when I came here four years ago, saw the changes and a guy I knew while I was here named Pompey, I decided this was the time. “While this will not be my last visit, I believe the message has been sent and now we can look towards fabulous changes with the convicts, once they look to God,” said Sealy