Through the Cracks

Release Date: April 2021

Director: Charlotte Windle Mikkelborg

Producer: Picture This Productions

Duration: 11 minutes

Script

It’s the things that we don’t choose that make us who we are.

Like our country, our community and our family.

And we take pride in these things.

I’ve lived in this community my whole life, and most of these people have. 

I guess you could say, I was born in the cracks and then I fell through.

From the age of six, I have to learn to cook from that age because my mother and my stepfather, when they were at work, I’d have to because I’m the eldest so I have to be the one to babysit, to cook to feed my sisters, get them ready to go to school and all of that, pick them up from school and so forth. 

We’d have days when we’d have food and days when we’d have no food.

This is where I grew up. This is where life for Demmino actually started…here. You know, so welcome, welcome, welcome!’

Growing up as a child in a (political) garrison area was not an easy task.

From the age of 6-7, you started to get recruited into certain things.

And the gang members they mould the youngsters from that tender age. So, they will teach them certain things like how to walk, how to lock a gun, how to do certain things, how to fire it, how to take out the magazine.

When they start to shape them, by the time they reach 10-11-12, they start to give them the gun now and tell them to…go and commit certain crimes…either kill people, rob, whatever the case may be.

So, when they start to shape them, by the time they reach 10-11-12 they start to give them the gun now and …go commit crime…either kill, rob, whatever case may be so.

Mother never really wanted me to become a part of it.

She always said she didn’t want me to end up as a criminal like my father.

She always told me things like don’t come out of the yard, don’t mix with the wrong company to try and keep us away from getting into trouble.

So, it was not until I reached about 16, that I started getting into trouble with other friends. Like normal teenagers do, we would go out and make mischief, you know, do robberies and all of those things, you know.

It had been like that for a couple of years, right up until I was about 18, when one day I came home and out of the blue my mother just searched me and she found two guns.  She turned to me and said ‘you know, I wish to god police would lock you up and send you to prison because of the road I’d started to tread down.

And, believe you me, not a month later it happened.

It was right, actually, exactly, here. So, this is the spot where, at that time, the police came from this way, just like this car, and they pulled up on me and pointed the gun at me and said, ‘Don’t move!’ and then the policeman started to search me and that’s when he found the gun.  He took it off of me and said, ‘what are you doing with this?’ and that’s when they arrested me.

It was from this point, that I began to think about everything that I held dear.  Because when I got caught, I said my life’s done now.

That’s what I said here, right at this spot here.

At the age of 19, I got sentenced.  They sent me to the General Penitentiary…that’s in Kingston and that’s where I started the 2 year sentence.

The first thing I said to myself was what could I accomplish within two years. So I said I’m going to try and go to school, get some subjects, and so I tried the prison school but the school didn’t work out as the teachers weren’t available.

So I said which area (could I study) and one of the teachers said music. So I said alright then I might as well learn music and that’s when I started to learn how to play the guitar.

I sat there and listened and tried to learn as quickly as possible and they were fascinated about that because they said you’re the first student to come here and learn so fast. 

Within four months, I’d learnt how to play the drums, to play the guitar and they still said I learnt too fast so they started to let me teach.

If I’d never been arrested, probably I would have been dead because, when I came out of prison, I realised that – out of the 15 of us who had been part of the gang – 13 of us had either passed away or were behind bars doing serious time.

As an ex convict, it’s pointless trying to get work. 

I have an aunty who’s linked to a church and the church called me to say they needed a musician.

When I was playing, I told the pastor I wanted to go back to school

I’d made up my mind that whether I had money or not, whether I had food or not, whether I had somewhere to live or not, I was going to complete school.

And that’s when I came into contact with New Horizon.

‘It’s been a while sir!’

We focus here on training young men from the Wynter’s Pen area and beyond…

We’re talking about high violence, high crime areas, especially in this diaspora area, in Wynter’s Pen, Spanish Town.  We are sitting right in a hot bed of one of the most murderous places in the world.

So, it is very often the case that these young men have experienced traumatic situations. They’ve seen murders, they’ve seen very violent things in their lifetimes. They are sometimes, many times, traumatised.

So, it is not an easy thing to be able to diffuse all of those things just to get to the heart of a young man.

Demmino came to us right out of prison, pretty much days out of prison, one of the hardest prisons in Jamaica. So we helped him with his meals and with his income and so on so that he could basically survive.  And I see his progress as being exceptional.

Mr Barnett has played a very vital role in my life..why?..Because he taught me all the things that my father never taught me and he always gives me good advice and encourages me to do my best.

We’ve trained just under 600 guys here at the facility over the years.

Most of these young men, the average profile of one of these guys, is that they are raised by a single mum, 95% of our young men don’t know their fathers.

Some of us are really trying to make a better life.

Now, I’m currently on location at a school where I get to interact with students on a day-to-day basis …troubled students who have problems with behavioural issues and so forth.

It’s almost 2 years ago now that I got married and I’ve got my first child.

Being employed now in Jamaica is quite challenging when you only have one job because even, for example, me and my wife, we probably make on average 106,000 Jamaican (750 US) dollars a month but that’s basically still not enough to do many things because the prices of food and the prices of stuff here are very high.

The other day I had to take Elijah to the doctor and I had to spend almost 30,000 dollars and that was more than half of my monthly salary.

We’ve been considering to start our own business so we can come up with more ways to finance our needs.

I believe that starting a business now would give my family a better opportunity at life, a better chance at life.

My dream for my son is that I hope he doesn’t fall through the cracks.  I hope he becomes something that he really wants to become and I hope he really becomes more successful than I am, in every way shape and form.