BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – EARLIER today (May 14), the Rehabilitation Group Impression (RGI), a musical band in Her Majesty’s Prison, entertained representatives from the Government of Canada and Operation Future who paid a visit to the penal institution to view the progress of the Rehabilitation through Music and Arts Programme.
The event was held on the prison’s premises on Cayon Street.
RGI opened its performance by playing the National Anthems of Canada and St. Kitts-Nevis.
The band also played a variety of genres including Reggae, Dancehall, Calypso, Soca and Gospel.
Some of the songs played were ‘Affairs of the Heart’ by Damian Marley, ‘Love My Life’ by Demarco, ‘Give Praise to Rastafari’ by Luciano, ‘Apologise’ by Gregory Isaac, ‘One Love’ by Bob Marley, ‘In You Mackazema’ by Ellie Matt, ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele, ‘Never Give Up Music’ by Jam Band and ‘Voices of the Ghetto’ by Singing Sandra.
According to a recent press release from Operation Future, the rehabilitation programme was introduced with the financial assistance of the Canadian Fund For Local Initiatives in partnership with Her Majesty’s Prison.
Speaking with SKNVibes, the High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados, Richard Hanley, said Canada has three major objectives in the Caribbean.
“One is to promote economic prosperity in the region. Second is to encourage people-to-people engagement and connections between Canada and the Caribbean and the OCES. And thirdly, we want to promote security, which is good for the region and good for Canada. We do that by doing anything that improves the lives and make the citizens lives more secure.
“So this project, in terms of helping inmates to avoid recidivism back in prison, helps their self-esteem. And we provided some music instruments for them and this playing room for them to learn music. It is part of the Canada fund for local initiatives; we donated some money for that.”
Hanley expressed his gratitude in working with Superintendent of Prisons, Franklin Dorset; President and Resource Officer of Operation Future, Officer Lauston Percival and Dan McMullin respectively; as well as all others who were instrumental in organising the programme.
He added: “I’m very proud to be part of the project. It’s been nice today to see what we’ve been able to do.”
MacMullin explained that the “entire programme is inmate driven”.
“In my experience, rehabilitation programmes that are inmate-driven are more successful because the inmates know how to deal with other inmates, and they have a vested interest in being successful. We’ve seen that in Her Majesty’s Prison..” he stated.
Notably, MacMullin is originally from Canada but resides on Nevis.
RGI’s head music teacher is Bernell ‘Blues’ Hobson, an inmate of Her Majesty’s Prison, and he plays the trumpet.
“Most of the guys couldn’t read the music. They had a little idea about the instruments, so you could say we started from scratch teaching the musical theory and the practical,” Hobson said.
He pointed out that the main challenge “was for them to understand the theory part of it, how to build chords and also timing. So today you can see that the hard work has paid off.”
Hobson shared that he has been playing instruments and involved with music for almost 29 years.
The former Defense Force Band member listed names of well-known national music specialists and musicians who had taught him music, in the persons of Val Morris, Ellie Matt and Nigel Williams.
Additionally, Hobson had played in the Legends Band and he also made mention of another inmate, Maurice Weekes, who has been giving him guitar lessons.
“So music is life and I love music,” he added.
Next month would make five years since Hobson has been incarcerated. He disclosed that he “has roughly 18 more months to go” before his sentence ends.
Meanwhile, Basic Raid Officer Ashley Pemberton informed SKNVibes that the music programme started last year.
“We started this music class in August 2012 with approximately 16 inmates. As time went by, the numbers eventually decreased for one reason or the other. Some may have left, some may have stopped because of certain reasons, some say they couldn’t get it (registered)…it was becoming too hard and so by Christmas we had nine or there about.”
The Canadian High Commissioner presented a plaque to Pemberton, who accepted it on behalf of the members of the music class.
Other members of the visiting Canadian contingent were Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Hon. Diane Ablonczy; Parliamentary Affairs and Issues Management Advisor Amanda Murphy; Visits Officer, Office of Protocol, Ian Benson; Director, Latin America and Caribbean, Jeffrey Marder; and Counsellor (Political), Debbie DesRosiers.
