Terrence Morris’s story from Remand Yard

ON ANY given day, someone will tell me about a horrific experience in a government office – especially in Immigration or the ID office. I commiserate because I spent countless hours of wasted time over several decades in those offices.

It felt like spending time in purgatory. Sometimes, I wondered if government offices realise they’re dealing with human beings and not puppets on strings.

Today, I tell the story of someone important to me who shares the same struggle many of us have had with government offices. I’m hoping his story will break this endless cycle of frustration and disappointment.

Terrence Morris is the captain of my debate team in Remand Prison, and his family says he has been going to relevant authorities since 2018, to renew his ID card.

He is now in dire need of that card to do a business transaction with the Mortgage Finance (TTMF) for his Housing Development Corporation (HDC) house.

He had relatives go to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) office. Employees told his mom it’s the prison’s job to bring him to the office, but the message I am told that he is getting from prisons is that the EB) has to send someone to prison for him to renew his card.

It appears to be the usual ping pong ball game government offices play with people.

Terrence was awarded a home from HDC in 2007. He went to the TTMF to purchase the house and was successful. He got the house in 2010; then in 2011, was incarcerated on a murder charge.

His case went to San Fernando High Court on August 13, 2015. He was given an indictment to attend court in San Fernando five years later, in July of 2020, and he has been going to court since then.

In 2018, Terrence’s father died, and this has made bank transactions difficult if not impossible.

He doesn’t want to get a power of attorney because he wants the right to control his own money, and he has used all of his inheritance from his father to pay attorney fees for his court case.

Let me point out that waiting nearly 12 years in remand is a grave injustice in itself. This is not a country known for the concept of speedy trials, and it often seems that we have forgotten that by law, people are innocent until proven guilty.

Without that understanding, we risk violating people’s rights – like the right to go to a government office to pursue the process of getting an ID card renewed.

Helping Terrence is important to me because of the unconditional support he gave me when I started the debate teams with prisons. Terrence emerged as an exemplary leader in recruiting talented, hard-working debaters inside of Remand Prison.

He worked tirelessly to eradicate the stigma of Remand Prison. Debaters there gave every prison a challenge and became known and respected for their debating skills and poise under Terrence’s leadership.

He proved to be a selfless leader, often sacrificing a place on the team that would have given him glory and visibility to develop the younger debaters’ presentation skills.

He did so much to uplift the image of Remand prison and show why every inmate deserves a chance and equal opportunity with anyone in this country.