- CONTRIBUTED
Sandra Ramsay (centre) is seen here talking to two ex-inmates in the chapel at Richmond Adult Correctional Centre, St. Mary.
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THE WINDS of compassion have been blowing through the halls of Jamaica's penal institutions, with the Food for the Poor Prison Release Ministry responsible for transforming the lives of almost 100 inmates.
Already, the two-year-old project has set 98 prisoners free by paying their fines which accumulated to approximately $2 million.
EASTER WITH FAMILIES
The most recent recipients of this gracious act were 18 inmates who were granted the privilege of spending Easter with their families.
Sixteen of them were released last Tuesday from the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in Spanish Town, while the others were released the previous day from the Richmond Adult Correctional Centre in St. Mary.
The drive's Easter leg cost Food for the Poor $350,000.
This humanitarian initiative is the brainchild of Ferdinand Mahfood, founder of Food for the Poor.
"It was his vision, as it is in the Bible that you should help prisoners and we are just carrying it on," said Sandra Ramsey, head of Food for the Poor's Prison Release Ministry.
"This (Easter) is the holiest time of the year and this is the time when the Lord wants us to spread peace and love, and the same goes for Christmas ... these guys all have mothers, fathers and families," she added.
Ms. Ramsey told The Sunday Gleaner that one of the programme's most remarkable aspects is that the inmates are in the dark up until the day they are told they are going home.
"The guys don't know they are going home. It is a surprise, it is very emotional and touching," reminisced Ms Ramsey.
Conrad Simms, who was released last December among a group of inmates that cost the programme approximately $500,000 - the highest to date - told The Sunday Gleaner that since he was convicted for possession of marijuana in June, anticipation was his cell-mate.
He explained that when inmates at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre told him about the programme, he prayed that he would be among the beneficiaries of the Food for the Poor 'pardon'.
"Mi always have it on my mind, because I heard that they helped to release inmates. I thank the good Lord!" exclaimed Mr. Simms.
He said on December 7, 2004 before he was released, he was at a church service inside the Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre, Spanish Town, where he had been transferred.
"The day they came I was in church, singing and praising God then I heard my name called," he recalled.
Mr. Simms said he did not leave the church service immediately but waited until it ended before he enquired why his name had been announced. When he was informed, he says he was filled with emotion as he would be reunited with his 12-year-old daughter, whom he did not get the chance see on her first day in high school.
"Mi feel good inna myself. Mi surprise seh mi ah come out come si mi likkle daughter after such a long time," he said.
A WELCOME CHANGE
The warmth of home and his daughter's embrace were a welcome change from the cold concrete and steel bars of prison.
"Mi go home the same night and surprise her. When mi stand up at the door, she si mi and run come hug mi up," he said.
Ms Ramsey told The Sunday Gleaner that the programme does not pay for violent crimes, nor fines for hard drugs, such as cocaine.
Besides writing off the debts the 98 inmates owed the state, Ms. Ramsey says that the programme has also helped 350 ex-inmates to start their own business.
"Most of them cannot get jobs because of stigmatisation, so we give them a start," she said.
Name changed.
