IN LIMBO: Alfairs Agregory Higgs.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
A 42-year-old schizophrenic man has been held in prison without medication, charge or court date for more than three years.
Alfairs Agregory Higgs was arrested in Freeport after an incident at the Immigration department in February 2015.
Now Mr Higgs’ family are begging the government to intervene as they fear as he waits in limbo in Fox Hill prison their loved one’s mental illness if worsening brought on by the squalid and dangerous living conditions at the jail.
Mr Higgs spent 11 years in a US prison, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and put
on medication.
Since his incarceration - for which his family insist no charges have ever been brought - Mr Higgs has been stabbed by another inmate.
“He’s been there from 39,” said Mr Higgs’ father, an Abaco resident who asked for his name to be withheld due to his profession.
“He’s 42 now, he spent his 40th, his 41st, and his 42nd birthday in there.
“He’s suffering man, the last time I was there they wouldn’t let me see him. They told me he was gone he’s not in there. Gone where? I still haven’t seen him yet the other times I went before it was no problem.
His father continued: “It’s sad, and he’s getting worse. I haven’t seen him about a year. The last time I was there he told me he’s drinking his own pee. He has never ever been to court, how did they get a committal for him, you have to have a warrant of committal and you can only get that from the court.”
Relatives claim Mr Higgs grew frustrated after having been repeatedly turned away during attempts to present his documents and make good on a letter he received while out of the country that his citizenship application had been approved.
The Tribune was contacted by his sister Candace Mills, 33, following the newspaper’s coverage of long-term detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Center.
“Technically he’s not in Fox Hill prison,” Ms Mills said, “technically he’s just being held by Immigration. When I asked before at the prison they said they can’t tell me nothing other than he’s being held by Immigration. Why does he have to be held in there?
“In there is awful, even on the outside you can tell it’s awful, even when you go for visits the heat will knock you out.”
She continued: “Even if they had to house him in there for a minute they never came back for him. They have forgotten about him. When you calling around nobody knows nothing, nobody never knows nothing when it comes to him.”
Mr Higgs was born on December 2, 1975 in Eight Mile Rock, and was a student at SC Bootle High School (formerly Cooper Town High). His mother was a Turks Islander and his father is Bahamian.
Although he did not have a passport, Mr Higgs had a travel document and was living in the United States when he was convicted of rape on April 12, 2004 was jailed and went on to serve 11 years, Mr Higgs returned to Abaco for a few months and then back to Grand Bahama where he worked as a barber.
According to relatives, he received a letter notifying him his citizenship application had been approved but could not take part in the swearing-in ceremony because he was incarcerated in the United States.
His father said: “He had all his documents on him when he got locked up, now they can’t seem to find it. He had his old traveling document issued by government. All of his birth certificate, schools records, the letter they wrote to him for citizenship. He had a cheque on him for $500 because someone paid him by cheque knowing full well he couldn’t cash it because he had no ID.
Mr Higgs’ father continued: “So he went there because he needed identification and they kept turning him around so he carried on and so they decide to lock him up.
“They put him in the detention centre, and we told them he needed his medication. And when he was there a few months they say he break up the detention centre, pull some wires out of the wall. So they sent him to the prison. But he’s on medication, I told them he needs help.”
Ms Mills said she hasn’t been able to visit her brother regularly because of her job, which doesn’t allow for time-consuming and hectic prison visitation days.
However, she admitted part of the reason she’s stayed away is because it breaks her heart to see her brother in such a helpless state and feeling powerless to help him.
“I couldn’t go there and see him like that. Why not put him on a ward? If he come out now he may have to go straight to Sandilands and then maybe he can come out on this road,” she said.
Ms Mills continued: “He ain’t no saint, don’t get me wrong. I feel for what he did he serve 11 years in prison but as things are it’s not right.
“If he has committed a crime they should take him before court but that has never happened.”
The Tribune attempted to contact the Director of Immigration Clarence Russell but he did not return our calls.
He got stabbed here in jail and I only know because my kid’s dad is in jail and he let people know if anything happen to Greg (Mr Higgs) to let him know.
“But when he comes out I don’t have no eyes or ears on him, I don’t know if he (Mr Higgs) can use the phone or doesn’t know how but he doesn’t call us. I’m sorry he (boyfriend) had to go to jail to know how my brother doing, for the last 18 months I’ve been knowing how Greg been doing because of him.”
Mr Higgs’ father said he met with the British Consul to see if they could render assistance given his mother was from Turks and Caicos, but was informed that they would not get involved.
Comments
Sickened 6 years, 7 months ago
They should of named the story Schizophrenic rapist held in jail in limbo. Then I wouldn't have wasted my time reading this. I honestly don't care what happens to rapists or murderers!
stillwaters 6 years, 7 months ago
Anytime you hear these parents saying 'I know he is not perfect' , that's a bad ass child they brought up. Only one other place for him, maybe Sandilands, but please not back into this community.
licks2 6 years, 7 months ago
He is a Bahamian. . .and TCI citizen. . .we have a problem. . .he can't be kept in jail. . .just like you or I can't be. . .without charge brought! This is a test case for Mr. Smith. . .if he is loyal only to Haitians or he sees HR for everybody!
TalRussell 6 years, 7 months ago
Ma Comrades this is exactly why we have be cautious about putting the very same people in charge sell we cannabis who are same ones been imprisoning they own people for possession marijuana or caught baking from home some remedies ya medical needs brownies. Likes UBP use do black natives whilst keeping them in dire financial straights over the hill. In this Imperial red government I sees UBPism.
DDK 6 years, 7 months ago
You at YOUR outer space brownies again?
licks2 6 years, 7 months ago
What are you talking about? You alright there fella?
Voltaire 6 years, 7 months ago
@ Sickened - that is not the point. The point is that if the authorities can hold this man for three years without charge, even though it is totally illegal to do so, they can easily do it to you or I. If this is allowed to continue, what kind of country will our children and their children live in. Violent crime is terrible, but there is nothing worse than violence, oppression, false imprisonment by the state.
Sickened 6 years, 7 months ago
While I agree TOTALLY that authorities have no right to lock someone up for that long without being charged I would have plenty sympathy if this story was not about a rapist. The 'warden' should be removed for letting this happen. However, since it's happening to this particular guy, I really don't care and I would not be marching to protect this guys rights. As far as I am concerned once a person if convicted of rape or murder then he has no rights. Use then as test subjects for chemical agents and torture techniques for all I care. Just don't let them out in public anymore.
licks2 6 years, 7 months ago
As should be said Sir Knight. . .when it comes to putting persons in jail without any charges. . .I don't care where they come from. . .is wrong under our constitution! It looks like our penal institutions can't get that frigging FACT INTO THEIR DANG HEADS! Must we let some of them officers them pay their own fines? YOU CAN'T. . .I WILL WILL NOT SUPPORT DOING THAT!
DDK 6 years, 7 months ago
What a horrible tale, but did the Bahamas Government actually grant citizenship to a convicted, incarcerated rapist?
TalRussell 6 years, 7 months ago
My Comrade DDK, how do you know you're a human being as long brainwashed be labeled as.... couldn't it be as simple as you being me and I be''s you?
joeblow 6 years, 7 months ago
Would be nice if the government would not waste taxpayer dollars on unconstitutional detentions. A schizophrenic rapist is about to get paid by the Bahamian government!
Sickened 6 years, 7 months ago
Ain't that a slap in the face!
TheMadHatter 6 years, 7 months ago
Joe Blow & Sickened hopefully God will have mercy on you for your sins. HE will because HE is God while we are just mere animals eating and defecating being unwise to the teaching of Jesus which is forgiveness - especially you two.
As for the prisoner, maybe the resident Haitian Ambassador can bestow upon him honorary Haitian citizenship and then Fred can get him out and under doctor's care in a jiff.
Gotoutintime 6 years, 7 months ago
Only in the Bahamas!!
TheMadHatter 6 years, 7 months ago
Sickened...people with mental health problems are often shunned, scoffed at, or ignored...until they show up at a school or a former place of employment and kill a dozen people. Then they become celebrities. Or in the case of this guy, they rape someone and end up serving in two jails double time.
In either case it does not bring back the dead or turn rape victims into virgins. We need to focus on prevention.
The goal should be to PREVENT these problems from occurring by making mental health care available. More and more people are mentally ill because of the garbage we eat that we call food, esp. that consumed by pregnant mothers.
Ronald Reagan closed down the public mental health clinics in the USA because of the abuse there. Patients were living in squalor who were poor and those whose families had a tiny bit of money to bribe the doctors got better care but the doctors would deliberately keep their meds just below sufficient to get well so they became permanent resident patients just so they could keep getting bribes.
He could have chosen to implement better oversight and jail the offenders. But we know the innocent suffer for the guilty and he chose to go the other way. Here we do the same thing. We have the free mental health clinic at the top of market street with pretty good doctors, but the administration deliberately rotates the doctors between there and PMH so that long term patients hardly ever get to see the same doctor in follow-up. Psychiatry has a lot to do with eye contact and body language and some things can't be fully made wholesome in "the chart."
We have a choice as a society; health or death. It's a choice. We are probably too dumb to choose the right one.
Sickened 6 years, 7 months ago
Listen, you very well know that God creates everyone and that he created this, and all, mentally ill people on purpose. And for the love of me I don't know why he would do something like that. If God wanted me to look after or care about schizophrenic rapists he would have made me differently. So, don't bitch at me for not caring - God created me NOT TO CARE!!!
BONEFISH 6 years, 7 months ago
He has to be released from prison immediately.You can not detain a person indefinitely in prison without them not being brought before a judge. in a democratic society.
TalRussell 6 years, 7 months ago
To Ma Comrades who thinks a man's who paid his debt USA society who is not in prison for reportedly nothing more than being rude immigration workers - If this hereto Tribune blog page didn't have a vulgarity policy, I would cuss y'all likes 1,000 of the nastiness's words known by any fisherman's..... including one from Cooper'a Town, Abaco if you rattle his cage.... and, since when do we locks people up indefinitely cussing-out government workers who known be rude in they own rights with they clientele. .
stillwaters 6 years, 7 months ago
The prison in the USA diagnosed him and provided him with medication. This family now needs to provide the prison with his medication and try to get him into Sandilands. Our prison budget can't afford this, you're no longer dealing with a prison in the USA.
bogart 6 years, 7 months ago
He is suffering from a mental disease and likely fails to understand reality etcetc. Such persons can be very normal on medication but the meds sometimes have an effect that they refuse to take it and thats when things go awry. Some persons may have exceptional strength and are difficult to calm down. There is great need in the Bahamas for more help and care for citizens suffering with this illness. Three years later....?
flutterbies68 5 years, 11 months ago
Things happen that may or may not be true but regardless of my opinion, he served his time in the USA, so that's the past. Mental illnesses are nothing to play with. I hope that his family gets him out. Yes, seeing him like that maybe sad to the sister but how do you think he feels. Probably ALONE. The mental illness makes it 1,000 times worse. praying that someone helps this poor man. When it said about he not being an angel that doesn't mean anything terrible. It means he made a mistake, he got upset that he was getting the run around. You folks act like you are PERFECT. But guess what your not. Only GOD is.
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