A former Westgate inmate has condemned the Island's prison system which he claims is failing to rehabilitate prisoners, is poorly staffed and lacks necessary finances.

Charles Richardson - released in January after serving more than seven years of a 15 year sentence following a shooting incident at a Hamilton nightclub - also criticised the Parole Board for failing to meet in a timely fashion.

Mr. Richardson used his time behind bars to obtain a law degree from the University of London. And he said he felt obligated to speak out about the system now because he believed “all was not lost” for those who still remained locked up.

One of the faults in the system surrounded his release, he said. Mr. Richardson was one of several inmates relying on a timely enactment of the Parole Board which has been fraught with delays in recent months.

And he revealed that had he not superseded the board by going straight to the Governor to petition for a remittance of sentence, he would still be staring at the four walls of his cell.

“A senior prison officer came to us in October and said ‘some of you will be home by Christmas',” he said. “I knew that included me. A few weeks later, Christmas had come and gone and there was still no movement. No one had the courtesy to say why things went wrong. It was a devastating feeling to hang a man's freedom in front of his face and yank it away and not tell him why.

“Now, there is a problem because of the backlog. People who are eligible for parole will just be put out there without the benefit of work release. The inmate being put out there without a job, without any resources, is doomed to fail. I was lucky because I had the benefit of family support.”

Mr. Richardson said he believed prison programmes which ensured inmates were properly rehabilitated back into society were lacking at the facility.

And although he gave credit to the National Training Board for introducing educational programmes such and Alternatives To Incarceration, he doubted the commitment of those involved at the administrative level.

“The prison department in recent years has concentrated too much on management structure,” he said. “They need to increase the budget. People look at the $11 million in the last Budget for the prison department and think ‘oh wow, that's a lot of money,' but you'll see that 80 percent of that money went on salaries and overtime. Now they are adding more officers to the rank - yes we need them - but the budget is going to have to be increased. Incarcerating people is an expensive venture. It has always been my opinion that the Ministry does not have enough confidence in its leadership in the prison.

“I think that the Ministry is not willing to hand over truckloads of finance to individuals who are not going to put it to good use.”

The recent departure of the prison psychologist, he said was also a set back for the prison system, pointing out that a proper mental rehabilitation structure was an important ingredient if inmates had any chance of living a normal life once released.

“They had a psychologist - they don't have one anymore,” he said. “He was doing the sex offenders classes and the violent offenders programme. It was difficult to get into the violent offenders programme because there was only one psychologist and so many people needed services. The majority of the problems that the men are dealing with in prison are mental. You would think that treatment services would be the most active department in the prison. You can say that there is an undeniable link to what happens to than man in prison and what he does when he is released, if the right services are not provided to the prisoner while he is incarcerated.

“But the main thing is that they don't have the right people in place with the right attitudes. In the seven years and five months I have seen some improvements, but I just wonder if they are coming too little too late for some of the inmates. Most of the staff I encountered were just going through the motions. When you are talking about modifying behaviour, you cannot just be going through the motions. It's not a formulaic exercise, it's a deeply introspective and caring activity - and if you don't possess those inherent qualities, then you should not be there.”

Mr. Richardson was jailed in 1993 for use and possession of a gun, injuring two people at the Spinning Wheel Night Club.

He said that during his seven years plus incarceration, many aspects of the prison society became his life and said while interacting with fellow prisoners, he often found a more human side to those who were doing hard time.

“I think that I left behind some of the most wonderful black men that you would ever want to meet,” he said. “When you meet these guys in quiet sober moments you can see what type of people they really are, the only problem is that circumstances have caused them to manifest behaviour that most of us find repugnant. You have to make a distinction between what the man has done and the man - a man is far better than the worse thing he has ever done.”

Mr. Richardson said that he was picking his battles carefully since being released and in addition to his activism he is currently gearing up to sit the Bar in England at the end of the year.

He said that he has reflected heavily about the past, but is eager to face his new future.

“I am sorry for what has transpired,” he said. “Me being released from prison is like a blind man regaining his sight. There was definitely an adjustment period there. The first thing I did was walk down to the beach, take my shoes off and stood in the sand. Most people probably won't understand that logic, but if you haven't done it for seven and a half years, its very significant. That was important to me. I have the freedom of choice to do whatever I want.”