Today, over two dozen southside kids were taken to prison today - not because they're in trouble, but to keep them out of it. These children were chosen from gang ridden areas to see what life is like in prison, to ensure that they never end up there. Four inmates spoke to the kids, giving them advice that they wished someone had told them when they were younger. Afterwards, the children were given a tour of the prison, where they were shown how the prisoners are searched when they first arrive and whenever they traverse the compound.
And this is all a part of the new Eastern Division OC's plan to curb gang-related crime - in trying to nip it at the bud. On Wednesday he met with the so - called "gang men", yesterday it was with their mothers, and today the police are hoping that by speaking to the youths, they can make a much needed change. Courtney Menzies was at the prison this morning and has this story.
Roughly thirty southside kids got on a school bus for an unusual field trip to the Belize Central Prison today. It's part of ACP Howell Gillett's crime fighting strategy and the main speakers were these reformed inmates who shared a dose of their prison wisdom with the children.
Voice of: Inmate
"It was tough when I was younger growing up, in the community I was in, it didn't work for me because my dad was in jail, only my mom was struggling to take care of me. But I was still going to school until I get expelled from ACC but now I'm still finishing my education, I'm in third form right now in the Kaina online. That's the best thing for you all, finish your school, get a nice job."
Lane Grinage, Inmate
"You are the future of tomorrow so if you start doing crime and go down the wrong road in life and come to prison, imagine how the future will be. When you all start having kids, what the world will be like, what kind of world or life will be for the kids you will have."
"Some people come to jail and it's not easy, people are telling you when to get up, you get food at a certain time, they have limited access to everything. Right now, everybody in here probably has a phone, and has a TikTok account. If you get involved in crime and mischief out there, you won't have that."
Ryan Barnett, Inmate
"Reach to jail because of following friends. No friends will have your back here, if you're in the street doing the wrong thing with friends, don't follow friends because when you reach here, friends won't help you, only your mom and dad will look out for you. When you call a friend from here, the only thing you'll get from them is straight voicemail."
Inmate
"Some of us act off emotions, we don't think before we act. Some of us act off of manipulation. Somebody might not come to you personally and say do this for me or do that, but somebody might tell you that you're a punk or you're a this or a that, because they want you to do but they won't tell you outright to do it. They'll tell you, bwai, you're a punk, they call you names, it gets to your head, so you prove to them."
"You like have your phone on you, you can't have your phone here, no Facebook, no WhatsApp, some TikTok, I don't even know what's TikTok, so if you like that, you try your best not to end up in these orange suits."
"The most important thing to me in life is life, right, but the second most important thing is freedom. When you have freedom and life you have everything."
And for these inmates, freedom is just a memory until they can serve out the rest of their sentence. And even then, they'll be forever burdened by that mistake. That's why they feel it's their duty to send one message: jail is hell.
For Lane Grinage, he had a bright future, until he chose the streets and ended up behind bars. Now he's waiting to get on the outside to educate the youths and help them to avoid the horrors of prison.
Lane Grinage, Inmate
"When you come to prison for the first time, it's always a scare, and for some people, anytime you come it's a scare due to the fact that you're in a cell with up to 8 guys and early in the morning, some will be showering when you want to sleep, you have to get up to eat, when the officers come and check, you have to get up out of your sleep, it's never settle. And you might be around people who are bigger and tougher and bully, you never know what character you would meet."
"No freedom, no privacy, your life is being dictated on a timely basis during the day, you have the routine checks the officers do, there are searches, you could have you items set up nice and neat to your comfort and when the officers come to search, it's like a hurricane pass through the cell."
"For me, as I explained to them, that it was an honor and privilege due to the fact that I based upon they are the future, so them being the future, it is our duty as people of experience who make mistakes in our life to educate the youths of the future so we could have a better tomorrow."
And for at least one child, the message stuck.
Courtney Menzies:
"When you see what happened here today, does it make you realize this is not someplace I want to be?"
Voice of: Minor
"Yes ma'am."
Reporter:
"How easy do you think it is for a youth like yourself or in your community to end up here?"
Voice of: Minor
"Well, sir, it's easy just by the friends you keep. Your friend could associate but you don't have to, but the main thing is with your friends, they corrupt you, and tell you let's go so, and next minute you're in the same spot, or burying ground."
"I see lot of people parents cry on news, I don't want to make my mom feel so about me, nor do I want anybody lose their trust in me because one thing, I always pray and just make God pave the way for you."
"Freedom is always something you need, you could be back here but you will be stressed, but it's you who put yourself there, if you say, I could be a prime minister in the next ten years, you could do that, your actions speak louder than words."
ACP Howell Gillett, OC, Eastern Division
"The kids were specifically chosen from ten different areas within Belize City. In policing terms, we would say it's some of the challenging areas. We purposefully picked them for them to see the end state of crime, so we brought them him to let them know what happens when they get involved in crime and criminality. And we want them to go."
ACP Gillett hopes to gather another set of southside kids for a similar "field trip."
