Father Forgive Them

Father Matthew D’Hereaux has been given the responsibility, together with a sub-committee of the Catholic Commission For Social Justice (CCSJ) chaired by Fr Michael Moses, to establish the Anthony Pantin Reintegration Centre at San Rafael, for restorative justice and post-prison support.

Fr D’Hereaux is also the assistant parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in San Fernando.

Construction will soon start on the building which will house 40 persons per year aimed at helping their reintegration into society. It is estimated to cost between three to four million dollars.

“The first three months after a prisoner’s release are the most vulnerable in his life” says Fr D’Hereaux. “Those three months, what he does and what he gets himself involved in, determine whether he will be a repeat offender. The project’s vision is to help ex-prisoners from becoming repeat offenders and reduce crime. The centre will provide support giving them concrete alternatives to crime.”

It will assist in the rehabilitation work necessary for someone to adjust back into society after years of incarceration through five programmes over a six to 12-month period. The programme includes mentoring; apprenticeship and job placement; individual and group counselling; family and community mediation; and literary and skills development according to Fr D’Hereaux.

“Ex-prisoners cannot find jobs because of background stigmatisation so we are going to help them get employment through apprenticeship. They may have basic skills developed at secondary or trade schools, we want to channel those skills into gainful employment.

“With regards to the mentoring which is important to give people support, guidance, hope for themselves and trust in the community, they can learn to trust people again. Mentors will become significant others in their lives because what happens with a lack of social support ex-prisoners get back into the same gangs, drug blocks and dubious company.”

Family and community mediation is meant to help reconnect the ex-prisoner with his/her family and community from which he/she came. The ex-prisoner may have been a nuisance in his community, a wife beater, neglected his children and in order for that re-connection/forgiveness/reconciliation to take place it is planned to request the service of trained mediators who can help build back bridges in the lives of these ex-prisoners.

Individual and group counselling is meant to bring on board trained counsellors in the various schools of psychology who would provide counselling services for the ex-prisoners. These services are meant to help build self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth and to re-orient them in thinking about the law, society and family, and bring about a reconditioning of thinking with regards to violence. “Hopefully, this will develop social skills. If we as a society lose the skill of empathy we would not know how to live together in civility. Part of the root cause of heinous crime is that we have lost the skill of feeling for another in his pain,” Fr D’Hereaux said.

He said that unfortunately, illiteracy is high among the prison population, not only the word but functionally, basic things we take for granted like filling out job applications or any kind of form, is lacking.

So literacy development has been tied in with procuring marketable skills as the committee tries to create linkages with other stakeholders in each of these areas by possibly bringing on board specialists and professionals.

During the construction phase a volunteer corps will be developed to contribute to these areas. So far scores of people have expressed interest in getting involved and offer the necessary skills.

“One of the philosophies we operate by is exposing our clients, being ex-prisoners, to the best in terms of thinking, world views, skills and life, to help in their escape from the trap of crime and violence. Based on the research of Dr Ramesh Deosoran, criminologist, we want to provide our clients with social, psychological and even financial capital to make a fresh start in life, to put down guns and stop robbery, theft and crime in general.

We hope to develop financial capital by running a farm out at San Rafael for arable crops and animal farming,” Fr D’Hereaux said.

Because the demand is going to exceed the supply at the centre, selection to the programme will come under the aegis of the “Walk Tall” programme, a rehabilitation and reintegration programme developed by the CCSJ. The programme will be divided into two phases: first, the 40-week rehabilitation programme at the maximum security prison and secondly, this year-long programme at the Anthony Pantin Centre.

It is hoped that in the near future with help from the Criminology Department at the University of the West Indies, to develop a psychological testing to determine which prisoners are ready for rehab.

“Because not everybody is ready for a rehabilitation, we are trying to work on scientific grounds that would hold the best success rate for the “Walk Tall” programme, ensuring graduation from the 40-week rehab to enrolment in the Anthony Pantin Centre,” he said.

Since the first phase ran for two years at the Golden Grove prison, the first graduates are already on a database. This year’s 40-week course was launched at the MSP on Frederick Street in February.

Pledges of financial support are being sought from corporate and private citizens who see value in this project for the nation and our communities for multi-million dollar complex which will contain live-in facilities.

Donations of materials, blocks, cement, steel, lumber are needed for a this community project.

“Remember crime and deviance are not related to the government or church or any one group that is why we want to get the community involved in contributing time, talent and money,” Fr D’Hereaux said.