Reece performing in the National Popular Song Contest three years ago.

CLAIMING that he had spent more than his fair share of time in prison, model inmate turned escaped convict, Lloyd Reece, says he took the decision to become a fugitive after concluding that the correctional system was a big deception that shattered his hope of ever being released.

"When I look at all my achievements and the good name that I've made for the (correctional) department, I came to the conclusion that the system is really a fraud, because it builds up your hope, and then turns around and shatters that hope," Reece, more popularly known as "Father Reece", told the Sunday Observer in a telephone interview last Monday.

His reason for calling the newspaper, he said, was to let "the whole nation to know why a man like mi really escape from captivity after 21 years in prison".

Reece, who was convicted of murdering two women in 1982, has been on the lam since April 17 when he was given time off to attend rehearsals for this year's National Popular Song Contest, also known as the Festival Song Contest, as well as the Gospel Festival Song Contest in which he had already made the semifinal with a number titled Pray For Jamaica.

He had first grabbed headlines in 1999 when he entered the Festival Song Contest and placed second with his entry, One Love Jamaica. The following year, he placed fourth in the contest with a song titled Ms Jamaica.

Prior to gaining public prominence, Reece, after becoming a Christian, apparently had demonstrated enough contrition to convince prison authorities to appoint him Ambassador at Large in 1999. The title gave him access to schools where he gave motivational talks. He was also allowed to attend church and to participate in the Festival Song Contest all by himself.

By 2001, the singer/songwriter had grown from a Festival Song entrant into a producer, his first project being his own album, Say Jesus, which included tracks such as He Rescued Me and Bye Bye Satan.

Like other death row convicts at the St Catherine District Prison, Reece's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after the landmark ruling in the Pratt and Morgan case by the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council.

In that case in the 1990s, the British law lords ruled that death row prisoners must be executed within five years, failing which their sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.

Late last year, Reece was transferred from the St Catherine District Prison to the South Camp Rehabilitation Centre in Kingston.

It was apparently there that he started contemplating his future after, he said, a senior prison officer told him that his case would have to go back to court for a judge to determine how many years he had to serve before he became eligible for parole.

According to Reece, who had always felt that he would have been freed soon, he was informed that a petition he had wanted sent to the governor-general couldn't be sent because he didn't have a parole date.

"It was brought to my attention that the time that we spent on death row wouldn't be given back to us," Reece told the Sunday Observer. "I spent 13 years on death row and eight years since mi come off death row, so that made 21 years in all. So for instance, if a judge should say 25 years before we get parole, I would have to spend another 17 years more before becoming eligible for parole, and it is not a must that you going to get parole.

"So mi just decide seh enough is enough. Twenty-one years in prison is enough for any crime weh a man commit," he said.

An official at the South Camp Rehab Centre, who spoke with the Sunday Observer on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware of anyone telling Reece that he would have to serve more time, but pointed out that all death row inmates are placed in one of two categories when their sentence is commuted to life.

According to the official, some inmates get a parole date, while others do not and therefore must face a judge who would decide whether or not they are eligible for parole.

"So, he (Reece), is not unique. All of them know it," the prison official said.

"He was a privileged inmate. He was such a so-called model inmate, that even when the programme was cancelled, he was still allowed to go on the streets. He was in the counselling programme, he was going to voice training twice per week when everyone else was confined to prison," the official added.

But that limited freedom was, however, not enough for Reece who likened his experience in the rehabilitation programme to being taken into the ocean and abandoned.

The South Camp Rehab official, though, was obviously disappointed at Reece's decision to flee and said that both songs he entered in the secular and gospel festival competitions were actually quite good.

"He even left behind letters he prepared for potential sponsors, both local and foreign," the official said. "It would be in his favour if he were to turn himself in."

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot