The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

YOUNG men from the Yellow Elder community yesterday participated in a voluntary field trip to the prison as organisers appeal for a resurgence of community involvement and accountability in youth development.

The initiative targeted young men between the ages of 10 to 18, and came as a response to increased reports of gang activity and violence among school-aged children, according to Clint Conyers, vice president of the Yellow Elder Association and director of the area’s crime watch association.

“For the last couple of months,” Mr Conyers said, “we had a high spike in high school violence and high school crime. It takes a village to raise a child. We have heard there is a lot of incidents happening with young men in Yellow Elder Gardens and we decided to take them on a prison trip.”

Mr Conyers added: “They can choose if they want to live a life of crime, or crime-free. The whole thing is allowing them to see the reality of life; prison is a very hard thing.

“All the young men when they go up there it’s hard for them to deal with. We’re showing these young men that they don’t have to go there.

“Most of them are school-age young men, they are out of school to have a bird’s eye view that crime doesn’t pay.”

Participating high schools included A F Adderley, Government High, R M Bailey, Charles W Saunders, Doris Johnson, and C R Walker.

“We made sure that we went to all of the schools,” said Mr Conyers, who explained to The Tribune that he was invested in the project as a resident of the community.

“They were not handpicked, it was open to all of the community. Some of these young men never got in trouble before, but some have. We want to let all have the experience of what crime and jail is all about, so that they can have a life or choice that they don’t need to be involved in any criminal activity,” Mr Conyers said.

“This is my community, I live in Yellow Elder (as) vice president of the association and president of crime watch in the area. If anyone in any other communities want to get it started they can always get in contact with me, and we can see if we can make it happen for them.”

Ken Moss, a chaperone and father of an eighth grader at AF Adderley, told The Tribune that the prison trip was an opportunity for him to give his son a “rude awakening” about criminality that he may be exposed to in his community.

“I feel it’s important because you have a lot of people around Yellow Elder who have been to prison,” Mr Moss said, “and sometimes my son who may see or be around, and then just to see them come in and out of prison they may feel it’s cool, that prison ain’t no place to fear. I want this trip to be a rude awakening for him so when he go on this field trip and see how it is in prison he will have second thoughts about doing something that could cause him to end up in prison.”

Meanwhile, Mr Conyers said Yellow Elder is one of the “high-risk communities” when it comes to crime.

“We want to show that all is not lost and there is hope,” he said. “It takes a village to raise a child. We want to come together as a community.”

One young man, 17-year-old Dennis Whymms said he decided to take the trip to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS) in an effort to be an example for his peers.

The teenager is studying an IT programme at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute.

“I decided to go on this trip to have a life experience, to not go to jail, like not to be like the rest,” the teenager said. “I want to be different. I don’t want to be, like how Nassau is rampant with this killing. I just want to make that difference, I want to show everyone we could have a different life.”