BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A crime committed, a person arrested, then charged, a Court convicts, a sentence passed and now a prison time is being served. This is the usual pattern of being sent to prison, but what happens after the gate slams behind the prisoner?
Three hundred and ninety males and three females reside at Her Majesty's Prison (HMP), also known as 1840, and their day to day activities are not what most persons expect.
SKNVibes spoke with Superintendent of the Prisons, Franklin 'Weatherman' Dorset who gave some insight on HMP and the prisoners' daily routine.
The 390 males include both convicts and those on remand in St. Kitts and Nevis and the three females are in St. Kitts as females are not housed in Nevis at any time.
Forty-seven persons are awaiting trial. These are persons who are going before the High Court at the opening of the September Criminal Assizes.
Ninety-three are on remand. These are persons who have been arrested but have not had their case heard in the Magistrate's Court as yet.
Three persons are in prison for failing to obey the Court's ruling to pay a debt, while one person, Everson Mitcham, is on death row.
The day starts with roll-call at 5:50 a.m. to ensure that there were no escapes. Five minutes after, there are morning devotions which include prayers and the singing of hymns. Convicts and remands are separated and each group has its own devotions.
After morning devotions, the prisoners go straight into what they call fatiguing which is the cleaning of the cells and other parts of the building. After that it is time to shower.
When shower time is over, it is breakfast time, after which the prisoners go into what is called "parade" and that is where some are selected to go out on projects.
"We do volunteer service - cleaning of lands, cutting of trees. We are doing a project at the Defence Force where we are constructing a building for the soldiers; we send some of them to the prison farm. We also send some of them to the Defence Force to do other work such as cleaning their yard, cleaning their garden as well as cleaning the compound.
"We also assist the Traffic Department with the painting of pedestrian crossings and traffic signs. We assist the Fire Stations with cleaning the yard and maintaining the gardens. We also assist the police at the Police Training School. This is in addition to assisting the Basseterre Police Station with cleaning," Dorset explained.
He further explained that the prisoners also assist with the cleaning of school grounds and the painting of schools on request.
Dorset said that on any given day, at least 60 to 70 prisoners go out to work.
He also said that when the prison has “parades”, the inmates have an opportunity to file complaints, if they have any. He said that the he [Dorset], the Chief Officer, and the assistant usually make "rounds" and take note of the prisoners' concerns.
For those who are not chosen to go on the outside to work, some do work around the compound while others are confined to their cells.
During the week, there are organised friends and family visits, doctor visits, Magistrate visits, lawyer visits, counselor/psychiatrist visits and recreation time.
At recreation time, the inmates play football, basketball, cricket, draft, dominoes, chess and card games.
When the Federation has holidays, Dorset said the prison tries to organise "fun days" where the inmates would form teams and have competitions in the various sports and games.
He said they sometimes have folklore including bull, and calypso competition. He said they also have reggae competition, poetry competition and even spelling bees.
Dorset said that the prison also has classes where the prisoners are taught subjects such as English and Mathematics.
"Some of these men are very intelligent," Dorset said.
Dorset reported that there are prisoners that cannot be sent on the outside because of the area in which the men would be going out to work. These prisoners, he said, are gang members.
"With the gang problem that we have in St. Kitts, there are prisoners that we cannot send on the outside. They cannot go here and there because they will be in danger."
The Superintendant said that the prison takes a "no nonsense" approach to the rival gang members while they are incarcerated, noting that "you will be surprised to know that they are more friendly on the inside than when they are on the outside".
"Upon admission we try to ascertain what gang they are a part of because we do not want to put someone in a cell where they would be uncomfortable and feel that they may be attacked. However all prisoners are instructed to keep their gang activities on the outside. We are very aggressive towards those who come here and try to create confusion," Dorset explained.
He went on to explain that if a prisoner 'disturbs the peace', he is isolated as a form of punishment.
"If you show signs that you want to create a problem, we would not give you the chance to do so, we would isolate you. The warning is 'keep your gang activities on the outside'. We have two slogans - Unity, and Badness Outa Style. In the prison, we want peace. If there is a problem that the officers cannot control, we call in the Police or the Defence Force," he explained.
Dorset explained that HMP is not a place with ample space and it is for this reason, the prisoners cannot be housed according to their level of criminal activities.
"Unfortunately the convicts and those held on remand do not have the luxury of being separated as space in HMP is very limited. We are supposed to have the convicts by themselves and those held on remand by themselves, but we cannot do that because the prison is overcrowded," he explained.
Dorset said that the lone death row inmate is not allowed to mingle with the other prisoners and that he is the only prisoner that has his own cell.
When asked about visits, the Superintendant explained that there is a process to go through when one wishes to visit a death row inmate.
"Most visits are regulated by the Registrar or the Provost Marshal. To visit with a person on death row, one has to go to the High Court and the Registrar will issue a letter addressed to the Superintendant of the Prison and at our convenience, we will schedule a visit," Dorset clarified.
Dorset further explained that the death row inmate is not allowed to go out on projects and he is allowed recreation time but only by himself.
When asked about conjugal visits, Dorset quickly dismissed it, stating that there are no provisions made for visits of that nature be it for long-serving or short-serving prisoners whether they are married or not.
"That is not legal, it is not in the law and I would not entertain the idea because I feel that before one commits a crime, they must know that there are going to lose certain privileges once caught," he said.
With regards to the inmates earning income, Dorset said that on different occasions some of the prisoners would have opportunities to make money selling arts and crafts but the prison neither has the market nor the space to accommodate such enterprises.
"If we had an ongoing arts and crafts market where we could've sold the paintings and other things that the prisoners make, it would have been better but such as what we have now, it needs some combing through. We have the challenge of space," he explained.
Dorset said that there are a lot of things the prison would like to do but cannot because of lack of space.
He explained that a building that was added in the prison yard, once ago house a classroom, a tailor shop, a carpenter shop among other things, but the building had to be converted into cells as the number of inmates grew.
The prison has its own farm which is maintained by the inmates themselves, usually those who were farmers on the outside. Dorset said that the farm, aside from a few months ago when it was not producing to standard, has been very productive.
"We sell some, we give to the Cardin Home, and we give to the hospital. We grow cucumbers, sweet peppers, bananas, pumpkins, squash, season peppers, string beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams. It is a very small farm," Dorset enlightened.
He stated that the farm could produce at commercial quantities but the prison does not want to compete against the other farmers. He said that due to space, the farm cannot produce the volume they would like it to.
He went on to state that he has high hopes for the prison farm, noting that in the long run he would like to see the farm produce enough to make a reasonable amount of financial returns.
"We will try our best and the profits from the garden will go back into the prison not only for food but for the general maintenance of the prison," he said.
The prison was originally built to house around 60 prisoners, but with over 390 inmates, one has to wonder how they all fit into HMP.
Since it was built in 1840, the prison has had some changes made to it - rehabilitation areas had to be turned into cells to make room for the ever growing number of inmates.
Dorset said that the building that was added in the prison yard houses over 100 prisoners.
He also said that HMP had the addition of the Nevis prison which was built in 1973 and is an open prison - a prison without barriers or major security.
Dorset said that the Nevis open prison is the only one of its kind in the Caribbean. Forty-five male prisoners reside there.
He said that only "low-risk" prisoners are housed there and so far the prison has been a success with regards to persons not escaping.
"We have had escapees but fortunately for us, most of them have been caught very early after the escape," he said.
When the day is over, it is time for a meal, a shower and then lights out. The prisoners either lay in bed, or on the floor and think about life, their family, their lost freedom - anything, until they drift off to sleep to do it all over the next day.
A crime committed, a person arrested, then charged, a Court convicts, a sentence passed and a now a prison time is being served. That is the life a prisoner.
