Ten Jamaicans serving sentences in local correctional facilities for a host of serious crimes, including murder, graduated from University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) on Tuesday with associate and bachelor’s degrees that, they say, have restored their self-esteem.

“We didn’t just earn degrees, we regained our dignity,” the summa cum laude graduate who responded on behalf of the cohort told guests at the ceremony.

“On behalf of the graduating class, I rise today with immense pride, deep humility, and a heart filled with gratitude, not just to mark a graduation, but a celebration of hope. Today is more than a ceremony, it is a resurrection of purpose,” he said, adding, “where there is vision, support, and courage, transformation becomes not only possible, but unstoppable”.

He also expressed gratitude to rights group Stand Up for Jamaica which, he said, stood with them when they couldn’t stand tall for themselves.

Five of the graduates achieved an associate degree in business administration while the other five attained a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

But even as the inmates celebrate their achievement, concerns have been raised that when they are paroled the stigma associated with incarceration could result in them being denied jobs, despite their qualifications and dedication to being rehabilitated.

Carla Gullotta, executive director of Stand Up for Jamaica, said that if society believes in rehabilitation it needs to also be willing to support reintegration.

“It has not been extremely easy because an environment like the institution [prison] is not conducive. There was a collective effort with the UCC, DCS (Department of Correctional Services) and Stand Up, and everyone played their role. Now there is a concern that we have people who are now at a very high professional level and, when they go out, nobody wants to give them a job,” Gullotta said.

“I started to open a dialogue with various agencies in the private sector and civil society to say, ‘They made a mistake and caused damage but they went a long way to show that they are different now.’ I believe that they have the right to a second chance,” Gullotta shared.

She also expressed concern about the criteria for parole, saying that among the graduates were people who have been denied parole.

“Their applications for parole were refused. The letter they received stated that they need to do more rehabilitation, more than what they have already done,” Gullotta lamented.

“They are the champions of the correctional services. I would love to open a dialogue and a discussion about how Parole [Board] has been dealing with those who have been going through the rehabilitation programme. They are eligible for parole but they don’t give it to them. They were sent letters that they needed to show signs of repentance and be part of the parole programme but these people are the leaders,” she argued.

Lamenting that not being able to use a degree defeats the purpose of attaining it Gullotta shared that the programme started in 2018 when Stand Up for Jamaica partnered with UCC and DCS to offer university educational opportunities to inmates.

She said that when they started seeing a lot of of the inmates excelling academically at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level, they decided to go one step further.

“We contacted a couple of university institutions and we got a meeting with the University of Commonwealth Caribbean,” which took a brave decision.

“They have been pioneers because they said yes. It is not easy to say yes to a project involving incarcerated people. Everybody knows how difficult it is to study, to get support, etc. They said yes. We proceeded and started a pilot experiment in St Catherine with five people — four inmates and one officer. In each batch there are inmates and one officer, because I think it is very important to allow correctional officers who work in such difficult environments to also grab an opportunity. Financially it is very expensive and they cannot afford it. The level they can achieve is a bachelor’s or a master’s.”

She explained that her organisation worked tirelessly to get computers, modems, e-books, and other tools crucial for the running of the programme while the DCS helped by providing a laboratory.

“We then had to clash with the fact that most of the classes were not during the traditional opening-hour time. There were classes on Saturday and Sunday when the inmates usually are logged in. There was the support of the DCS. We started the first batch, which did much better than we thought. This is the second batch. Some were in the first batch but they want to achieve their master’s,” she said.

“The success was great because our students were in a batch of 690 outsiders, and they were among the first 25. Amazing, amazing! Nobody was expecting so much. That encouraged everybody to extend the programme, so today we have people from three institutions, which are St Catherine, Tower Street, and South Camp which is the only female one. This is something I really wanted,” Gullotta said.