No one ever expected them to succeed. Many people were sure they would end up back behind bars.
Sunday Newsday tracks the progress of eight men who won their cases or got out on bail. Their lives outside prison are featured in a series on inmates from Debbie Jacob’s CXC English classes and debate teams.
Why did these men make it when so many others failed?
Read their stories of redemption, rehabilitation and reinvention in the Sunday Newsday
Part II
Ricardo Gittens had goals when he came out of the Maximum Security Prison on November 30, 2022.
He had spent 16 years and three months in prison – half his life – and his main purpose – to be reunited with his mother Ann Marie Hughes – never diminished.
“My mom always stood by me. She never gave up on me,” said Gittens.
He regretted quitting school in 2002 and moving out of his mother’s house to live with a friend in Arima. That decision led to a murder charge when he was 16.
In the Youth Training Centre, the burly teen with a soft voice placed second for his Emancipation Day speech about the injustice of slavery and appreciating the freedom people take for granted.
Gittens was transferred to the Maximum Security Prison while facing his first trial, which ended in a hung jury.
In court on January 2022, he heard the process had to start all over again for a second trial, so Gittens pleaded guilty rather than wait years for a retrial.
On November 30, 2022, he was released.
“Every year I have to go to court on that date so the judge can see how I am progressing,” he said.
Gittens had hopes and dreams when he came home.
“I want to start my own woodworking business from my mom’s house, open a shop to sell sweet drinks and snacks, and work part-time in construction,” he said.
The plan was to keep busy and earn money to achieve his goals, but Gittens’ plans came to a halt because of his mother’s deteriorating health. She had worked at PriceSmart in Mausica, but complications from covid19 in 2020 prevented her from returning to work.
Then she had a stroke two months after he returned home.
“She can’t walk by herself. She needs someone to hold on to, and I’m the only one who can take care of her,” Gittens said.
He had been taking odd jobs with his brother – landscaping, pressure-washing, construction. Someone volunteered to help him with supplies for his woodworking business, but
he didn’t get far with that as a promise by a donor to supply equipment fell through. He is still hoping that he can save enough to buy pieces of equipment to get started.
“I’m just surviving right now, but I am accustomed to surviving,” he said.
“My family assists me. Sometimes I get a day's construction work, mixing cement or cutting yards. I run fast and do the work, because my mother can’t do anything until I get back home.”
Gittens has six brothers and a sister but they all have their own families and he took on the responsibility for caring for his mother with their help.
Gittens said his life “takes a lot of patience.
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