Mark Wignall | Can irredeemables be reformed?

Recently, Nationwide conducted at least two interviews with senior people at HEART/NSTA Trust, which is that huge agency whose mandate attempts to correct at the back end some major systemic flaws in Jamaica’s education.

A 16-year-old student from, say, Immaculate Conception High School armed with CAPE distinctions in biology, chemistry, math, and economics is quite unlikely to find herself knocking on HEART/ NSTA Trust’s door. She has other things on her mind like studying medicine.

The reality is this. There are some primary schools seated on the edge of dense, inner-city communities. When these children leave for high schools, a significant percentage of them carry the baggage of the general uncivility that is attached to zinc fence lane existence.

It is that attachment that principals of brand-name high schools fear. They do not want anything to infect the education gene pool of the particular high school.

But even the students are in on the game. One girl from a top-notch high school told me this about 10 years ago. “If one slips through the system because she is really bright, we tolerate her for a while then we ignore her. By ninth grade, she has fully assimilated, has thrown away her dutty behaviour, and is one of us, fully uptownish and snobbish.”

CAN INGRAINED BAD BEHAVIOUR BE FIXED?

The other reality is that the best of our teaching population would much rather be at a school where they do not have to expend valuable time correcting horrible home and community behaviour. The most pressing reality among too many in the youth population concerns those who get derailed educationally and fall into a life of crime. While many in the general population are of the view that the incarcerated should be locked away for life, a chance of reform must always be on the books.

HEART/NSTA Trust assists not only those school leavers seeking training in artisan trades such as plumbing, metal work, auto mechanics, and skills in low-level work in the hotel industry, but those who committed crimes and were caught. Were I operating, say, a small 50-room hotel that is a start-up and I needed HEART/NSTA Trust’s assistance, I would not be averse to utilising a few ex cons. But my first choice would be trained school leavers.

It could be sometime in the 1990s when Omar Davies, then newly minted MP for South St Andrew, spoke about some young boys who were irredeemable. Some cussed him off while others like me, who had spent time close to the belly of the beast, agreed with him.

In speaking with another MP, this time from the Jamaica Labour Party, laughed and said that just about every single MP knew of these irredeemables but would prefer to keep their mouths shut. They would make this decision because these bad boys were their constituents.

MEASURING QUALITY OF REFORM

It is usually new and feverish attachment to religion that convicted felons use to bamboozle the system that they are truly reformed. “Jesus has entered my life and I am a changed man,” one is likely to say. Even armed with strong training in sociology, how does one know if the newly trained criminal is ready for work on the outside.

Recently, I met a deportee who was trained in plumbing while incarcerated in the United States prison system. As soon as he arrived in Jamaica, he attached himself to the criminal underworld. In fairness, the sort of criminality he was attached to was petty street trading of hard and soft drugs and not the kind involving guns.

“Some ex cons, believe it or not, prefer to operate on the inside so they deliberately set up themselves to return to a well-organised criminal system operating in the prison,” said a retired police superintendent to me recently.

“Their friends are there, and as long as cell phones are skilfully smuggled in, they are OK.”

HEART/NSTA Trust is doing a wonderful job, and I am not searching for excuses to cast blame on the work they do, especially on the youth population behind bars. Based on social background, it is quite easy for many youngsters to see school purely as a meeting place for friends and future cronies in crime.

Some are genuinely remorseful and grateful to secure another chance at life. More of those must be identified and placed close to HEART/ NSTA Trust and the best training module suitable for them.

It makes little sense to train those who are using it as a ruse to secure a ‘get out of jail’ card.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.