THE best Christmas gift for children of men imprisoned for various crimes in some of Jamaica’s penal institutions is to release them from behind those walls of shame and into their midst.
Five children, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer last week, said that their Christmas celebrations would normally be bright had their fathers been around to spend time with them, but their convictions have put most of their plans to have a joyous celebration on hold.
Of the five, only one had been through the Christmas season without his father before — that man being sent to prison in the middle of last year for murder and is unlikely to have his freedom restored any time soon.
The four others had the disappointment of their fathers’ imprisonment unfold before their eyes this year. The crimes for which the men were locked away from civilisation include murder, robbery with aggravation, illegal possession of firearm, possession of drugs and trafficking in narcotics.
“I really miss my daddy. He was not always at home when I wanted to see him, but he would try to give me things that I wanted,” the child of the man who was sentenced last year told the Sunday Observer. “Like even when Christmas come, he would make sure that I would get presents and we would go downtown and walk all over the place, then go Mall Plaza and those places. I really still miss him and only hope he could be here with me,” the 15-year-old said last week.
The recently implemented sentence reduction programme, implemented by the Criminal Case Management Steering Committee and supported by the Ministry of Justice, had given at least one of the children hope that his father could be out of prison early. However, when told by the Sunday Observer that accused persons could only benefit from the incentive before their trials were over, the child’s mood again shifted to one of pain and anguish.
“People always say that their fathers don’t support children, but my father was in my life and he was giving me support,” a 14-year-old girl, who attends a popular and highly regarded high school in St Catherine, said. Her convicted father is on compulsory vacation at the Governor General’s pleasure at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Facility, having lost his bid for full freedom in court earlier this year.
“We used to do a whole heap of things … me and my father and my brother and sisters. All of us could not wait for Christmas to come because we could get extra money to buy things, go to one and two parties and jus’ have fun,” said the youngster, who admitted to smoking cigarettes at times and has experienced the “holy weed” — ganja — through occasional puffs, all the time looking over her shoulders to spot potential transmitters of news to her parents.
“I really miss not seeing my daddy around, like not getting any pinch on my jaw and me play-play and slapping him in him neck back, or drawing a string across him face when him sleeping to make it feel like mosquito or fly bothering him,” said the young woman who also tries her hand at sports activities.
Of those interviewed, three are from low-income communities with high rates of unemployment, popularly known as inner-city areas. Even through a period of reflection and reminiscing, one of them found it difficult to cope with the bone-hard fact that there would be no reunion with his father this year, even though he, before the conviction, saw the man he calls his hero fortnightly on average, given that is he living in Kingston and his father moved around the eastern section of the island.
After composing himself, the lad, aged 12, turned the spotlight on some of the good times that he had with his father. He remembered how his father took him in his “stiff and tight” khaki suit on his first day in high school and how they made plans link up “big time” in December for Christmas.
“If only ah could see him come out of prison tomorrow, it would be like something great, Sir,” he said. “I don’t go to prison to look for him because him say him don’t want any of his children them come see him in prison. And sometimes we will get a one call from him, but him don’t have a phone and is other prisoners or the people them who work in the prison him beg for a call,” the youth went on.
One boy, who said that he will mark his 18th birthday in January, revealed that Christmas time with his father, when he is in Jamaica, was always special. “My father loves fruits, especially jackfruit, and around this time when jackfruit would be around, me and him would drive a whole heap of places to buy or beg jackfruit. Then when it comes to Christmas time, him used to strict years a go, but after ah reach 16, him kinda loosen up and gi mi more freedom. So me an him go whole heap a party, an him always a tell people say ‘a my big son dis’, an things like that, an some a him friend dem would all tease him an say things like, ‘a wah number son dis you have T…..?’, a try tell him say him have whole heap a pickney,” the high school student said.
Since his father was forced to play by the rules of the State apparatus in the first quarter of this year, the child said he has been to see him three times, all briefly, but speaks to him sometimes.
And what does he miss most about not having his father around for Christmas?
“The sorrel. Him used to drink nuff a that, an him like Christmas cake too and all a us roun’ him love sorrel an cake. Him not a pork man, so we never eat ham roun him, because if him know say we eat ham him woulda cuss we — but me an me mother and me two breda and me sister use to hide an eat the ham when we get it. Every day me pray say something a go change, even if dem get new evidence fi set him free an mek him come back a road,” the boy said of his dad who is expected to serve three years in a Kingston-based penal facility.
As for a bright-spirited 15-year-old girl, who admitted that she did not have the best relationship with her father but missed him anyway and always liked to have him around at Christmas time, it would mark the first time “since mi know miself” that daddy will not be around to share in the Christmas cheer.
“Him did kinda too miserable, an him strict too, but him never did miss out on Christmas wid me an me breda (brother) and sister. Is a man who like fi cook curry goat to… him never mek nobody cook when him dey home, an even when him put nuff pepper inna it and a nuh all a we eat pepper, it still taste nice. A that me remember bout Christmas dinner wid mi father,” she said.
“Even though him miserable and him no mek no boy come near we, mi still miss him bad, bad and mi only hope say him would dey a road wid we … even fi the curry goat Christmas Day,”she added.