After being in seclusion for the past three months, one hundred and one inmates at the Belize Central Prison finally emerged today from the Ashcroft Rehabilitation Centre where they have been undergoing treatment for reintegration into the general inmate population and reintroduction into society and general population. It has been challenging for all those involved in the addiction rehabilitation programme but today was time for celebration as each was awarded with their certificates of accomplishment. 7NEWS was invited to the ninth graduation and as Jacqueline Godwin reports, while the inmates will now have to practice what they have been taught it will also take the participation of all of us to achieve the overall success.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Sixty three year old Raymond Peters proudly hugged his twenty eight year old son Norman Peters. You see this father was very worried about his son’s future because he had turned to a life of crime that sent him to jail for five years.

Raymond Peters, Father of Graduate
“It hurt me a lot because at least he is the one that was at home with me and only we three were at home.”

Norman Peters, Graduate
“When I was out a road I was robbing people, hurting people, and now.”

Now the father and son are celebrating after Norman Peters successfully completed an intense three month rehabilitation programme. A total of ninety- one young men and nineteen women from Hattieville Prison including one female civilian received certificates of accomplishment during a special graduation ceremony at the institution.

Raymond Peters,
“I am proud because he at least decided to make a change in his life and I wish after this he doesn’t go back to the thins of the past.”

Norman Peters,
“I don’t want to go back out there and do the same right now because I know if I go out there right now by tomorrow people would already kill me so I am trying to change.”

Like twenty nine year old Dorla Polonio who says it was a life of neglect that made her choose a life of crime.

Dorla Polonio, Graduate
“Because of neglecting love from my mother and from other relatives at home I became a crime person like doing crimes and wanting to have things my way and I ended up eventually in prison.”

Where this single mother of five children has been for the past thirteen months but she has only seven months left to spend behind bars.

Dorla Polonio,
“I always make sure that I am happy. Right now I am here like 13 months now and my mother hasn’t come to see me, my family are not there for me but with my sister with the grace of God, she is the one that is taking care of my kids. I want to carry this message, I want to carry the news, I want to be a role model for others out there that are suffering from their addiction. I want to show them and talk to them and tell them that yes we had made wrong choices in my life but we have another chance to choose right from wrong.”

Since the ninety day rehabilitation programme started in 2006 over six hundred inmates have actually completed the treatment but it is always a challenge to remain on the road to recovery. According to the Chairman of Kolbe Foundation John Woods of the three hundred and twenty that have been released just over sixty have returned to the Belize Central Prison.

John Woods, Kolbe Chairman
“Have had 62 return, some of them voluntarily, some of them that we ourselves have picked them up and some of them get into trouble with the police and come back in. We’re at 20 percent and if you look at rehabilitation centre around the world they hit more like 80% so we’re really really shining and I am very very proud of this program and we want to take this program, like we’ve extended it into the female section, we want to extend it into the balance of the prison.”

What makes the ninety day treatment unique is that it is directed by a recovering addict himself and former prisoner Juan Vega. Vega knows from first hand experience that it wasn’t for these inmates to remain in a disciplined programme.

Juan Vega,
“Oh you don’t do this, oh you keep your hands full, oh you treat me with respect, and I need you to treat me with respect, respect others, be always on the alert of when we say how to sit, how to eat, when to sleep, when to take a bathe and all of these things are what many a times keep them unstable. They are rebellious but that is part of the job and that is what we teach them too, to reconstruct and take a different step looking at their attitudes and way of thinking.”

John Woods,
“We want to have positive programs throughout this prison so that they get a different idea, they find out that there is that special person inside if you just let him out and that there is so much good in each one of us, and I know that is hard with some guys, but man I’ve seen it.”

Today ten of the graduates will return home. Just how many of them will be accepted back into society is anybody’s guess but this is a time when the business community is being asked to extend a helping hand to make it all possible.

Jacqueline Godwin,
Now comes the biggest challenge because some will be leaving this disciplined environment, going back into society, so how optimistic are you that they will remain on this road to recovery?

Juan Vega,
“Well I would say that I am optimistic. I am 80%. For some of them I’ve said the support from the outside is kind of little for them. The stigma of being an inmate, a criminal is still there so I look at it is not only HIV being abused or be stigmatized but even the inmates here and I believe that society itself needs to break that stigma.”

John Woods,
“We’re always trying to push it but it is a big challenge because people are tired of the crime out there, they are tired of living in fear, and so they want to lash out. But I think rather than lash out we need to reach out and help people get it together. That would be the biggest thing, we need to encourage more people to get involved.”

And for Dorla Polonio who is now looking forward to reuniting with her children next June she plans to remain on that road to recovery.

Dorla Polonio,
“If I choose today that I want to go back to the dirty and lowdown life that I was living out there in society I can do that. But if I choose that I want to lift up my head and show my children the principle of living a better life and living the life that their mother could give them or that my mother didn’t give me so that they cannot go the wrong way then with the grace of God I can do it.”

Reporting for 7NEWS, Jacqueline Godwin.

The addiction rehabilitation programme is based on the twelve step recovery programme of alcoholics anonymous. It includes a three phase approach, the breakdown, the reconstruction and the spiritual retreat. Since the programme started in 2006, it was the first time that there were females among the graduates.