KINGSTON, Jamaica—A former inmate at the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre is crediting the structured, rehabilitation programme delivered by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) for equipping her with new skills and a new purpose in life.

Taneka Stewart-Blake, who benefited from training during her three years of incarceration, says the experience saved her from depression and changed her life for the better.

It prepared her for transition back into society and allowed her to gain full employment after her release.

“There are a lot of courses there at South Camp and for the first part, going in wasn’t nice. The feeling was really awful getting sentenced and being incarcerated. For the first three months, I was really out of it, but then, I started to say, ‘this is it; you have to accept it and you have to move on because you have to live.’ I began to get myself involved, and so I went to school [in prison],” she said.

Stewart-Blake, who was incarcerated between May 2022 and March 13, 2025, related her story during the recent Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Best Practice Symposium for Social and Community Development, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

Reintegration of individuals formerly in conflict with the law was the focus of the second day of the two-day symposium, where experiences of rejoining society were told through the testimonies of ex-offenders and returnees.

Stewart-Blake noted that “even though I had CXCs (Caribbean Examination Certificate passes), I decided to do social studies, and when I did it I got a grade two”.

“After that, I felt enthused. HEART/NSTA Trust came in and I did a customer service course and got my certificate. Then, I did data entry, got my certificate, and I went back and did biology, and I got the award for top student in biology,” she shared, while beaming with joy. She also did a course in behavioural modification.

The education and training, she believed, allowed her to gain employment after leaving the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre in 2025.

“The data entry course that I did is now helping me [for work], because I’m doing inventory. So, when I do [stock taking], I have to enter them, and the course helped me in maneuvering that part of the work,” Stewart-Blake said.

She is extremely grateful for the support of her family, relatives, neighbours and co-workers, who embraced her return to society.

“My family was overjoyed. I was welcomed and people were excited to have me back. I felt like, yes, persons cared… they didn’t shun me. I didn’t have any bad experience of persons looking down on me, and that was really emotional. When you hear about prison and you come back and you get that kind of reception, it was really, really good,” Stewart-Blake said.

“Once you go into prison, even though you’re back in society, some people attach this stigma that once a prisoner, you are always a prisoner. But I never felt like that, and my community never allowed me to feel like that,” she noted further.

Stewart-Blake mentioned the support of her church community and pastor, who celebrated her return with tears of joy.

“Church in the prison system also helped me, because sometimes when I was really down, I went to church and got a word. It helped to lift my spirit. In the institution, you have a lot of different persons with different personalities and from different backgrounds; you have people who try to bully people, so when you go to church [in prison], you get a word and keep yourself calm,” she said.

Family support, she noted, was also instrumental in taking her through the three years of incarceration. Her mother took care of her daughter who recently celebrated her ninth birthday.

“My mother was my greatest fear. I feared that I would lose her while incarcerated, because she is 83 years of age. She had my five-year-old daughter when I was locked up, and she is nine years of age today. My mother stood by me. She was up and about with her, helping her and still being there for her at her age,” she said.

While not revealing the crime she committed that landed her in prison, Stewart-Blake’s advice is for individuals to always “be on the right side of the law. Just stay on the right side of the law. If you stay on the right side, then you won’t have a problem”.

For people incarcerated, she encouraged them to change their mindset into accepting their fate and embrace the rehabilitation process.

“It all has to do with your mind and your mental state. Sometimes, you do the wrong and you end up being incarcerated and [after your release] you do the same thing [again] and end up back in the system.

“I tell people, it’s not all that bad and negative. It is not somewhere you should work to go, but if you end up there, then you can make a difference. There are things there to do, and if you set your mind to get changed, it can happen,” Stewart-Blake said.

The DCS, under the Ministry of National Security, delivers a wide range of rehabilitation programmes designed to foster personal growth, reduce recidivism, and reintegrate both adult and juvenile offenders into society. These initiatives focus on a holistic approach that includes education, vocational training, psychosocial support, and spiritual development.

At the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre, programmes are offered to prepare offenders for sustained employment through academic certification and skills training in cosmetology, sewing, data operations, customer service delivery and dance.

Commissioner of Corrections, Brigadier (Retired) Radgh Mason, in his address, said that there are many positive, life-changing and transformational stories coming out of the nation’s correctional facilities, highlighting the power of rehabilitation in rebuilding lives.

He noted that people who enter prisons have made mistakes in their lives and need the opportunity to rehabilitate, acquire new skills, and safely reintegrate into society.

“When you see persons incarcerated, don’t believe that they’re all serial murderers. They’re ordinary Jamaicans who have for whatever reason, found themselves on the wrong side of the law,” he pointed out.

-JIS