By BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SIMEON CLARKE of England and founder of ‘BEST’, which stands for Birmingham Ex-offenders Service Team, said that St. Kitts needs a rehabilitation programme to help reduce crime.
Clarke who has been in St. Kitts for four weeks and will be leaving at the end of July, said that the programme is needed to prepare prisoners, whose sentence are almost at a completion and also young people who are prone to join gangs.
“A rehabilitation programme will be looking at the background of young people who are in prison and those who are in gangs to help them to look at life differently, which leads to helping to reducing crime,” he said.
Clarke said because of his work as a Community Warden in Birmingham, a job which requires him to patrol certain parts of that city to look into the concerns of the people living there, this has led him to work with young people outside of and inside the prisons.
“Whether it was from an environmental side of things or security side, whatever was a concern for the community, we’d look into it. While I was doing that, there were young people who were hanging out on the streets, and they said they can’t get a job because they have been in trouble with the police before and it’s hard for them,” he said.
Clarke is an ex-offender and also does prison ministry.
“So there I decided that I wanted to do something to help the young guys who been in trouble, and that’s why I started my own organisation in 2005. So, I mainly work with ex-offenders and young people. I myself am an ex-offender. I been in prison two times in the past and I used to live that sort of lifestyle. I’ve experienced it and I been down that road, so I know what it’s like for them,” Clarke said.
He said too that his experience in prison has helped him to look at things in a different light.
He started going to church and subsequently placed more value on life and people.
Clarke, whose mother is a Kittitian, said he had visited the island on several occasions and wants to start a rehabilitation programme here.
He said, so far, four murders have occurred while he has been here and feels strongly that something needs to be done.
Clarke said that in England, he and his team work with the gang members in an attempt to discourage them from a life of crime.
“When you get to know people and know what they do and why they do it, you can start working on them to get them to see things from a different angle, and start to challenge them with what they are doing.
“Some of them get involved in gangs and don’t know where the gang come from, what the gang is about and why they are involved. Sme of them think it’s a good thing, but when you start working with them and helping them see the reality of things, then they’ll start seeing things different and will want to come out,” he said.
In terms of the prison, Clarke said that before travelling to St. Kitts, he had written to the Superintendent informing him of his interest in visiting the prison.
He has met with a number of prison officers and has also visited the prison farm in Nevis to learn of its conditions.
Since his arrival in the Federation, Clarke has been assisting the prison getting certain necessities, such as paint and also several knickknacks for the prisoners.
“A lot of guys in the prison, who I have spoken to, really want to make a difference with their lives. But what I realise in St. Kitts, is that when a person goes to prison you have the community against them straight away, then you have the family against them because they’re in prison. The chance of getting a job is limited when they come out, because of the fact that they have a police record or been in prison.
“They have all these factors against them, so when they come out they have to come out fighting to get back into society. So, that battle on its own is a lot for them,” Clarke said.
He added that children under the age of 18 are not allowed inside the prison to visit their parents.
“I see why they say that, but can you imagine a mother or father away from their kids for 10 years or so and then have to build up that relationship again when they get out? That alone in itself is hard.
“If some kind of programme can be done so that before they come out, they have certain access where they can start seeing their kids maybe once per month and start building a relationship or start helping them get a job, find out about their home situation so that when they come out you can start that support work with them, because you’ve made some progress with them and will be a great help to anyone coming out the prison. A lot of pressure would be taken off of them, but at the moment they come out of prison just like that…they out of the gate and some got no place to live, wondering where they go from there,” he said.
Clarke said that from speaking with the prisoners, some of them want to change but because they do not have a job and no support, they fall right back into crime.
“Then the community says those guy love prison. When someone reachs the stage of being hungry, they end up going to steal. I’m not saying it is right, but what I’m saying is that when the natural instincts of survival kicks, they do go out to steal and start to steal bigger and bigger things.”
Clarke said that the consensus of some of the prisoners he met with is that they ended up in that situation because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, because of their friends and the company they keep and their drug habit.
He also noted that some of them have slight mental health problems.
“So it’s a lot of issues that might make a person commit a crime. Some of it has to do with the way they were raised, but I’m not entirely blaming parents, because some of the guys that are in there come from good background.”
Clarke reiterated that he really wants to make a difference and start helping in the reduction of crime.
“Guys in prison said they love the programme and asked what they could do to help with the project. I told them once they come out the prison they can come to it and work towards changing their lives and staying away from crime,” he said.
