It took less than three hours to convince a group of boys from Eleuthera that Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) is not the place to spend the rest of their lives.

The Central Eleuthera High School students were in New Providence on Friday to tour the Fox Hill facility and get a glimpse at life behind bars.

Men of Faith, a group of spiritual men from various denominations, organised the tour to give the teen boys an eye-opening experience about the repercussions of a life of crime.

“We think it’s an opportunity to make them aware as to what would happen if they make the wrong decisions. We want them to see [this] first-hand and hopefully this grand experience would be that which would impact their lives and change their lives in the future,” said Men of Faith President Jason Thompson.

“We felt that this is the time to channel into these boys because we need to mold into their lives that it is time for a change. As we’ve witnessed here today, the majority of prisoners are males, so we want to grab them while they’re young, make them realise that they can make a difference, but it starts with them.”

He continued, “We were able to interact with some of the prison inmates, they were able to share with [the students] some of their experiences and all of them say ‘hey, this is not the place to be.’

The boys toured the minimum and maximum-security areas and all of the students The Bahama Journal spoke to said they did not like what they saw.

“It was a little bit scary because the prisoners had [angry] faces and some of them looked like they wanted to come out of the prison and beat us up,” said Terio Sands.

The ninth grader said he plans to “straighten up” and avoid trouble so that he doesn’t have to go to jail.

Meantime, Deon White, a seventh grader said he quickly realised that “prison isn’t the place to be.”

“I’m going to stay out of trouble and make sure I do the right thing,” he said.

Fifteen-year-old Denzil Gardiner, who is in the tenth grade, also said his experience was “scary.”

“When I went in there I could smell the bed scent. More than one person was in the cell, you don’t have any privacy. It was a little scary,” he said.
Men of Faith Vice-President, Leonard Culmer said he hopes the boys’ experience turns them off from prison.

“This is what we’re trying to do to show them, life is about choices. It shows them that if they make the wrong choice, they will end up in prison,” he said.

“We just want to thank God for the judge in Eleuthera who works along with us and with these kids. Before they left Eleuthera she said she hopes that when they come to the prison and see what prison is like that if they have to come before her [in court] that she has no other choice but to send them back. I am hoping and praying this will be a life changing lesson for them that they would not come into the prison.”