Dear Sir,

Having worked with Adam John McIntyre since 1987 when he sought my assistance and other educators to help him in designing and developing the prison education programme, I was devastated when I heard allegations of theft against him because not only did I admire his integrity but, as a Senior Education Officer for over 41 years, I was one of his supervisors and I had seen firsthand his zeal for improving inmates’ education and welfare.

It was convenient for me to work with Mr McIntyre in this worthwhile programme as I was the Education Officer in charge of adult education, and prison education formed an integral part of adult education. For some time, he was the only teacher at the prison and he would often invite me and other volunteers to assist in motivating and teaching inmates. Because of his unflagging commitment, he would often volunteer his services on weekends and public holidays, and he often used his own monies to purchase books for inmates.

One of his most admirable accomplishments was when he established Cayman’s first ex-inmate organisation, The Caring Brothers (TCB), to assist released inmates in continuing their education and aid their integration into the society. He held free classes at nights for inmates and their families.

In 1992 he entered inmates for GCE ‘O’ Level exams and achieved 100 percent pass and over 300 inmates have passed their GED and other external exams. In 1995, he introduced the Prison to Information Technology, bringing in the first computer to teach staff and inmates.

Mr McIntyre’s recent exoneration by the Court of Appeal was a welcome relief for me and the many thousands of persons whose lives this dedicated prison educator transformed during his eighteen years as the prison education coordinator.

He joined the Prison Service in 1987 after teaching in four high schools in his native country, Jamaica. According to his court trial transcripts, he was suspended in March 2005, without an internal hearing after allegations that he had misappropriated monies for ‘one or two inmates’, none of whom had made any complaints against him at the time of his suspension, and he was not ultimately charged for the two inmates for which he was initially suspended.

It now appears that the accusations were misplaced, malicious or mischievous. Bafflingly, though I was Mr McIntyre’s longest serving supervisor, I was never contacted by the prison officials during the course of their investigation and, worse, I was contacted by the police after Mr McIntyre had been arrested and charged.

That’s why the news of his exoneration after almost four and a half years threw me in a frenzy of delight. As I pondered about his sterling contribution to the prison, I wondered about the many inmates that have been ‘cheated’ as a consequence of his long absence.

Mr McIntyre was one of the most valuable and experienced prison educators as well as a trained officer. In addition to serving as a counselor, he taught English, Integrated Science, social studies, drama and behaviour management. He also assisted in staff training.

Using a cast of inmates he wrote, directed and produced several plays at the Harquail Theatre, one of which would have premiered in April 2005 had it not been for his suspension two weeks earlier. The entire community will recall how hilarious those prison plays were.

For me, the charge that Mr McIntyre had stolen $3,200 over a six year period (1999- 2005) was difficult to reconcile, and the written judgment from the Court of Appeal happily confirmed my doubts and dispelled my anxieties:

“ ... I find on this score therefore, that the learned trial judge misdirected herself on a question of law, and that the appellants conviction ought to be set aside as the prosecution had failed to prove the counts of theft beyond reasonable doubt...I find as well that there is nowhere stated in her reasons for judgment why the learned trial judge found the appellant guilty of the counts of theft preferred against him. She simply entered findings of guilt at pp. 1459 to 1460 at lines 12 to 25 and lines 1 to 6 respectively of the record. There was simply no analysis of the evidence in relation to any of the counts.”

Mr McIntyre is an intellectual athlete and a champion in the cause of prison education and I am indebted to him for my insights and understanding of prisoners’ interests, needs and shortcomings. He believes that the public in general and parents in particular have to play a greater role in the rehabilitation process.

In an intriguing book entitled “Understanding the Criminal” in which he shares his vast experiences on the nature and consequences of incarceration, Mr McIntyre says, “Prison is the birthplace of hopelessness and the graveyard of self-esteem where the parentally-neglected premature infant of deviance is nourished into a robust criminal delinquent. The Sentence of the criminal forms the Composition of most of our problems. Society should replace the urge to punish with the will to understand.”

Lillian Archer