Ex-inmate in Christmas dreamland after FFP pays $300,000 fine

When non-violent offender Craige Garricks was told that Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica stood in the gap for his family and paid the $300,000 fine for his release from prison in time for Christmas, he was beyond excited.

The 25-year-old said he was so eager that he took up his bag several times on December 16 and enquired about the moment the doors of the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre would finally open for him to exit.

After being imprisoned for several weeks, he longed to be reunited with his two sons – a six-month-old and three-year-old – his partner, mother, and other family members.

Garricks was first arrested for simple larceny in 2018 after the police stopped a car in which he was a passenger in Spanish Town. He said that his brother was the driver.

Both men were charged with illegal possession of a Cherry Bonus Slot Machine Bank, for which they had no receipt to prove purchase. It was deemed to be stolen.

But the $300,000 fine was too high a bar for his household, Garricks said.

“Mi family couldn’t pay it and mi get sentenced the 23rd of September [2021],” Garricks told The Gleaner during an interview at Riversdale, St Catherine.

He is still in disbelief when his name was called, signalling the fortune of spending Christmas with his family.

“Mi check seh a dream mi a dream. How much hundred man deh a prison, and a my name [was called],” said Garricks, crediting divine intervention for his release.

Garricks had been going to court repeatedly for hearings for more than two years until he was eventually imprisoned in September.

“Mi learn mi lesson still and mi would like to push towards the right thing,” Garricks said on Wednesday.

He recalls that prison was not a bed of roses and he was bullied by colleague prisoners, who he said were often provocative.

Garricks has been working as an electrician for the last seven years – a trade he said he was taught by a brother-in-law.

Now that he has been released, his sister, Christine Garricks, who stood surety for him after his release, employed him on a construction site where her house is being built in St Catherine.

She is thrilled to have her brother back home.

“Mi feel happy because mi a build mi house and mi know seh me a get the full help from him,” she said.

Ms Garricks explained that it was costly for her to visit her brother at the St Catherine facility and to pay for items he needed.

Garricks is one of nine non-violent offenders for whom FFP paid the fines for their release since the start of this month, said FFP Jamaica Public Relations Manager Petri-Ann Henry.

For 23 years, FFP Inc has been paying the fines of non-violent offenders during the festive season as part of its prison ministry outreach. The charity not only pays the fines of persons in Jamaica, but also in Honduras, Guyana, and Haiti.

The Garrickses’ mother, Deon Gibbons, said she prayed continuously for the release of her son.

She was elated at the news that the $300,000 fine had finally been paid.

“Mi seh to mi daughter, ‘A must Jesus pay dat deh fine deh, ‘cause mi nuh know of nobody fi go pay so much money inna dem yah time,’” said Gibbons.