Winslow (Dewey) Durrant, 56, was released from prison two months ago and now has a job and a new beginning, thanks to the Wood Shop Programme.

The Christian-based self-help programme has saved several people, including Mr. Durrant, from the revolving door prison syndrome.

"I was searching for a job on day release when I ran into Mr. (Clevelyn) Simmons who offered me a job at the Wood Shop,'' he told The Royal Gazette during an interview at one of his job sites last week.

"After he told me how the programme was set up I felt that this was the right sort of thing for me.'' Mr. Durrant said the programme could help any young black male finding themselves in need of a job.

"There is no work for men coming out of prison otherwise,'' he added. "When you tell a person that you were in prison, they don't want to hire you. That's why this is ideal for ex-inmates and I think these guys sitting out here on the wall could be helped by it too.'' The reformed prisoner said the last time he was released from prison, in 1992, there was no Wood Shop and the end result was much different.

"In 1992 I was trying to find a job,'' Mr. Durrant noted. "I was out seeking and there was no work. No one would hire me. I had to tell them the truth, that I had been in prison. And it was always `I'll get back to you'. But they never did.'' Living with his sister while not having a job also created problems, he added.

"She had to pay rent and buy food,'' he said. "And I couldn't assist her.

She was at the breaking point where she was telling me I had to move.'' Mr. Durrant said he was also getting fed up with the situation and that the pressure was mounting.

"I went down to my shed and got my machete and went to the closest convenience store and robbed them,'' he recalled. "I want to apologise to the people I caused pain with that incident. But I really did not care about anyone or anything at the time. I was thinking I might as well go back to prison.'' Mr. Simmons, himself a former prisoner who founded the Wood Shop with his brother and Bermuda Broadcasting Company CEO Rick Richardson, ex-inmate Jerome Crockwell and Hands of Love founder Fern Wade, claimed the prison system was breeding criminals.

He said Mr. Durrant began participating in the programme in prison and about eight inmates were currently involved.

With a good environment and counselling the revolving door of "recidivism'' will stop, he added.

"More jail time is not going to stop someone desperate enough from committing a crime. They're going from having no place to having a warm meal and a roof over their heads. And when they get out they are on their own again with the same problem plus an added one, they've been in prison,'' Mr. Simmons said.

Mr. Simmons also explained that the rationale behind the Wood Shop programme -- which has received praise from Labour Minister Quinton Edness and wide support from the business community -- was that if inmates can get work, they can pay their own way and learn to become productive members of society.

Ex-inmates get second chance He noted that Mr. Durrant was just one of the programme's success stories.

And he challenged the prison system to invite his programme into the prisons.

The current prison system did nothing to encourage a change of behavioural patterns. And he noted that upon leaving prison inmates were often met with discouraging remarks like, "Oh you'll be back'' or "how long you gonna be?'' "They do that because they know that 80 percent of them are going to be back,'' Mr. Simmons said. "I salute the prison officers that do care like Dennis Brown and Winslow Minors.'' However, he said when other senior officers did not support the programme, it made it harder for the "good'' prison officers to help.

Mr. Durrant also blasted the prison system, saying it did not offer any assistance to ex-inmates looking for employment. And he said there were people working within the system who had no business in that field as they had "little or no regard for inmates''.

"Some of these guys use the prisons rules as a spring board for their personal agenda and ideology,'' Mr. Durrant claimed. "They don't seem to have to account to anyone for the way they treat people.'' Mr. Simmons added that something had to change or the situation will only get worse.

"Prison doesn't mean anything to guys who don't care about life anymore,'' he stressed. "These men need that extra support. They can build the Police Force as big as they want. But they'll have to keep building bigger prisons, too.''