TRINIDAD NEWSDAY
Reggae stars sing at Youth Training Centre
Saturday, June 20 2015
DRUM PLAYING: Young men from the Youth Training Centre, play the drums yesterday at the function. ...
INMATES at the Youth Training Centre (YTC) yesterday received words of wisdom from four Jamaican Reggae stars as they paid them a visit at the annual Fathers’ Day programme at the facility in Arouca.
Freddie McGregor, Capleton (Clifton George Bailey III), Tarrus Riley, and Alaine Laughton told the inmates that it was important they never return to the institution. The artistes are in Trinidad for a concert, “410 – Southern Reggae Festival” at Skinner Park, San Fernando, tonight.
Speaking to them first was McGregor and he told the young men that he was a father of eight and he does not think a parent should have to go to a penal institution to look for his children.
“You don’t want to be here. Circumstances do happen and cause some of you to be here but I want to say to you, make this be the last time you ever come to a place like this,” he said.
Riley in his remarks told the inmates that they needed to look towards their future, because their life did not stop at the institution.
“People make mistakes, some of the greatest people in the world lose their freedom at some time, Marcus Garvey from Jamaica, Malcolm X from America. You don’t have to stop here, you don’t have to end here. You have to self motivate, look into yourself, and know that you are more than what you see right now. Inside every young man there is a King. Think about your future, when you leave here, don’t come back here,” he said.
Laughton in her short address told them that they had promise and should remember that whatever they did in the past, will not dictate what their future will be. “There is so much for you, this is not the end, it is a speed bump, it does not define you,” she said.
Before addressing the young men, Capleton began singing a few verses from some of his hits which the inmates enjoyed. He then told them that they had to be courageous and strong and obedient to their parents. He also noted that for there to be a difference in society, people need to “parent each other’s children.”
“If someone is behaving in a disorderly conduct we are supposed to go and correct them, put them in their place and let them understand,” he said. Acting Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart said the programmes at the facility empower the youths.
