When I came to Jamaica, I was in a resort
Busted by the police, I ended up in Freeport
They locked me up and done stole my weed
Now I eat porridge that looks like horse feed

Hear me out, hear my cry
I pleaded guilty, I told no lie
Here we are all locked up
No where to go that’s messed up
Being here is a lesson to be learned
You can guarantee I won’t return

I know you miss your family
I know you miss your man!
Being here wasn’t part of our plan
So keep your sanity, keep your cool!
There reason why I’m here, I was a mule
If it’s ganja, heroin or coke
Take it from me this ain’t no joke
A big ass fine
I need a loan
One more year, then I get to go home
I’m no rapper I’m not like Busta
But I wanna big up the ladies of
Fort Augusta

From: Anonymous

Why should an individual make the same mistakes as others? Is it because we are not using up our aptitude to face life and its problems? Behind all of this, we’re all imperfect as a people.

There are individuals in the prisons, some of whom are innocent, and the others guilty. However, many of the guilty ones want to make a positive change in spite of all the things they have done to humanity and society, but how can we repair all those pain, grief, and losses we had caused when we’re not getting the opportunity to do so? On the other hand, there are some individuals who think that we should not be forgiven. So if we have to suffer the consequences, then what about those individuals who are innocent and unfortunately get caught in the system?

We need to remember that even when Christ was crucified on the cross he was still pouring out his mercy and forgiveness to us. If we continue to dish out evil for evil and bitter for bitter then the world will never be a better place. There are good men and women behind bars no matter what their circumstances are. However, we all need your help and moral support. I had killed and injured people in the past, but I wasn’t aware of what I was doing to life and myself. Now I want to take this opportunity to ask all the victims’ family that my fellow inmates and I had hurt and the rest of the Jamaican people, if they can find it in their hearts to forgive us. Because when we place our attention on the grief and losses we encounter from the lost in our past, we can never recover; we’re only holding ourselves back from receiving new resources, new opportunities, and new experiences of a happy nature.

My people, we behind bars need to know how you’re feeling and what you’re going through because this is the only way we can all attain transformation. Let us all come together for the sake of our children and heal this nation. Please don’t use our past and blight our future.

Low self esteem leads up to a lack in determination and growth. Poor vision gives negative mindsets. Neglection brings forth hopelessness. Poor family values leads to illiteracy and teenage pregnancy. Poor cultural awareness leads to a lack of: knowledge, understanding of oneself, and where we’re going as a people. Mis-guided spiritual intervention brings confusion. These are some of the things that contribute to many of us being where we are today.

By: Norris Gordon

These words may lack coherence, because I’m laughing while I write
Laughing at the silly folks who celebrate my plight
Laughing at their claim that I can now no longer bite
Laughing as God forgave me cause I was broken and contrite.

Laughing at politicians who make promises galore
Laughing at voters opening silly ears to hear more.
Laughing while they rid uptown of every street whore,
They prostitute our resources through the door.

Laughing at our prisons where they don’t rehabilitate
Laughing at the warders with their big guns at the gate
Laughing at them trying to entice our visiting wives on a date
Laughing, as some will never find themselves until its too late

Laughing at the police who once flogged me for a spliff
Laughing as he celebrate on his temporary cliff
Laughing as he laughed, saying that’s how he gets his lift
Laughing cause he is no more and I didn’t order the hit.

Laughing at old friends who wont hear my plan
Laughing cause I helped them when I too was free
Laughing because very soon they will see
That its far from being over for a man strong as me.

By: Ricardo Paulwell

This is thought.

If I could sing I would sing my troubles away, but the thing is, I can’t, so I write because I got to let people know where God has brought me from, whichever way I do it.

Why me? Everyday I ask God why me, then I remember these words: “should Christ carry the cross and the whole world go free” so I STOP wallowing in self pity/ questioning God.

Doubting myself, knowing that the sky is the limit. Even though sometimes I go to my bed by just putting some sugar in my mouth to have some energy so that nervousness don’t kill me in my sleep the way how hungry I am, or drink some water. I still give God thanks because what I’ve been through is the least of what God has been through and I always tell myself that I want to be more and more like him each day.

I’m in prison right now and trust me, it’s not a bed of roses, I have to pinch myself one an two time to see if it’s really real, but I’ve come to the realization that its just life and everything that happen it’s because of SIN. The bible said we were all born in sin and shaped in iniquity and until we make that change in our life things are not going to be better because what people don’t understand: change don’t come by chance–it’s a choice you have to make to get that change. So don’t sit there in self pity waiting for that chance and telling yourself you don’t have any luck when you don’t get it. My friend it’s up to you, are you willing to make that change?

I would advise you to.

From: Anonymous, at Ft. Augusta

For some of us, it is you who make us unhappy with ourselves and our achievement. You think we need another partner because yours is not good enough. You think we need more expensive clothes because yours is too old and boring. We are ashamed of your job and who you are.

We are ashamed of how you are running the country, why don’t you take off your masks and see that what you are doing is wrong. We have a big problem in this country with crime and violence and it will not stop if you don’t take off your masks and open your eyes and see that the country is going down, please open your eyes please.

For the young youth and elders please open your eyes and save the country. The life you save could be your own so please take off your masks and open your eyes.

(E.G.) from a news paper article write on Monday the 10th of January 2005.

A three year old boy and his mother and his father were shot and injured when gunment attacked their home in the St. Catherine area.

So what is this country coming to? I want you to take off your masks and open your eyes.

From: Paul Jackson, aka pan head.

Prison teaches me the depth of criminality and tries to keep me out of touch with reality.

Prison teaches me that it is not like home away from home
Where you get tender care instead of fear

Prison teaches me wickedness, bitterness, madness, badness, sadness, selfishness, idleness, laziness, craziness and all kinds of ness that placed me in a mess.

Prison teaches me that it has no fundamental foundation to lay progress on.

Prison teaches me that when you enter its dwelling
Automatically you are no more a mind, soul or spirit
You are just a body waiting for the undertaker if you are not a good thinker.

Prison teaches me
That when you are release you are the least in society because there is a chip on your shoulder that labeled you as an ex-con so your only plan to the solution
For your sufferation is to commit another crime where you may end up doing another time for a crime

In earnestness, prison teaches me that when you return to society
You will be rejected by humanity
And that will affect your sanity

By: Byron Skitta Mesquita

Love is an unknown mystical power that intoxicates, quavers, and fascinates an individual who encounters with it.

Love is a thunderstruck word, it carries a deep warm current that absorb and quake the human enthusiasm.

Love does not bring you blues, however it only makes you feel content with pleasure, gentleness and harmony.

Love edifies the character, stimulates the mind, will, emotion, heart, and soul; explores your fantasy, and appearance: body language, eyes, walk, talk, and dress code.

Love is a tender, adorable, precious thing that charts the course in one’s life.

Love is audacious, discipline, empathetic, persistent, and is further endowed with trust, hope and patience.

Love is an inherent thing with worth and it is very exclusive, it completes the source of a pure love and togetherness.

The knowledge of love is to show acceptance and establish the fulfillment of life.

People change but real true Agape love remains the same.
Have you ever been in love?

Norris Gordon

(Inspired by the Trafigura incident)

Buried six feet under; they hope to be discreet
But now the stench has surfaced from beneath
They thought it was over, but others have exhumed,
The body of corruption which they thought was consumed.

Since corruption isn’t flammable–it cannot be burned
So they buried it for a while, but the tables have turned.
Now wide open is the sepulcher which covered the box
As extinct becomes their laughter and they cannot relax.

They might own the cemetery, but life owns the plot
So concealment they sought, but open shame they’ve got.
Now their secrets are out as the grave has open wide,
And skeletons and corruption are no longer inside.

Skeletons are for closets is what we’ve been told,
But these carcasses were too stink for a closet to hold.
At the ‘final farewell’, they thought all was fine,
Not realizing that things would change with time.

Relentlessly they tried to keep the grave close,
Detesting transparency, that’s what I suppose.
Corruption is the order for those who crave,
Then panic their response, when there’s an open grave.

By: Ricardo Paulwell

No job creation
no room for a little hustling,
surely is a penitentiary entry.

Economical stress,
poverty is not at rest,
inflation puff its ugly chest,
another sure room for penitentiary entry.

Heads of government!
There is a lot of room for improvement,
please stop this penitentiary entry.

Gun in hand,
man look a food fin yam,
Youngman please understand,
dat route is not for you man!!
Although poverty ridden,
money stricken,
don’t go killing across the country,
that’s a penitentiary entry.

Private Sector! Entrepreneurs!!
There is space for expansion,
let’s create some job no man?
So that we can stop this penitentiary entry.

Mr. Gun man, Mr. Knife man,
what dat in you han?
Put dung dat nuh man,
yu a mash up di plan,
me a beg unnu stop!
Look in a unnu self;
that route is a penitentiary entry.

Mr big man,
mr. don man,
Mr. politician,
do something nuh man!
Yu nuh see dem a mash up di can?
Di weapon soon tun pan unnu same one,
so wid knowledge in unnu han me a beg unnu,
stop di penitentiary entry nuh man!!
Cowboy lunch time nah issue again.

By: Simeon Shepherd

(Editor’s Note: The following letter was one of several written by inmates after a woman called in to Kevin’s program, “Unchained”, with the story of her rape and subsequent grief and healing. We do not know who her rapist is.)

Thank God you are healed again
Thank God you are clean again
Thank God you are not thinking mean again
Thank God you are the essence of forgiveness
Thank God you are no more a slave to unforgiveness
Thank God you have found it in your heart
to forgive the man who violated your body,
the man who bruised your soul and almost
destroyed your mind.
Thank God your forgiveness towards a man
who was possessed
has started your healing process
In my book you are a princess.
Thank God your temperament
has surrendered to your empowerment
Thank God you have speak out
and it has reached out
because I am touched tremendously
Thank God your story has changed my history,
my history that was like a mystery.
Woman, you are the cream of the crop,
you are a queen,
you are healed.
Thank God, thank God, thank God you are healed.

By Byron Skitta Mesquita