John, Mark and Jack (not their real names) are three inmates at the Westgate Correctional Facility who are tackling their addiction to mind-altering substances through the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme introduced by Kuni Frith-Black.

John wants to be a counsellor, helping others deal with an issue that has affected his life for years ... drugs. Mark turned down parole so as to continue his rehabilitation, following a previous parole violation which put him back in prison.

Jack says the issue of drugs in prison is a serious one and he believes about 85 percent of the inmates at Westgate (193 on the day we visited) have issues with drugs.

John is in his 50s but now sees the need to change the direction his life is going. Upon his release in a few years he wants to be able to use his experiences to help others avoid similar pitfalls, saying he wants to be a drug counsellor.

"I'm leaning on the experience of Mrs. Black, feeding off everything that is going on up here," said John.

"When I first came into the programme I didn't think, as Mrs. Black said, I needed to be in any type of programme. I thought to myself that I was just somebody who liked to get high every now and then.

"I never felt any dependency to drugs, I thought I was just somebody who liked to get high. I didn't think there was a time when I couldn't get what I wanted, that was why I never felt the dependency. But since coming into the programme I have identified that, yes, I did have addictive behaviour and that I was a substance abuser."

How long has John been on drugs? "Let's just say 30-plus years, I'm in my 50s," he revealed.

"I just decided enough's enough! Another contributing factor was that prior to coming to Westgate, I had never had to live in such close proximity with so many individuals who were so damaged by substance abuse ... just like me. I've been here just over two years (he is serving a ten year sentence). I was in prison before, 34 years ago.

"I feel to myself that the healing process has to start someplace, so I decided to start with me, to get myself right so that I can give away what I have. I have no reservations about using my painful experiences to let others know how potentially dangerous substance abuse is. They could end up where I am or even worse."

John describes substance abuse as a "previously undefined form of genocide, spreading so fast it makes a wildfire look like controlled burning of trash in a backyard incinerator". Those were the words he used in his written speech when he graduated from the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme in July.

Involvement with mind-altering substances cost John his marriage, though he does have a relationship with his three children. Regret shows as he calculates what he has lost.

"I was raised by loving, caring parents as well as relatives and neighbours next door who were able to correct me," John stated.

"I had a fairly good education, good jobs, good working skills and I also had a wife and three children. The wife I don't have any more which was a direct result of my involvement with mind altering substances. I wouldn't admit that before I came into the programme, but after being in that group and feeling the empathy, I would now share what I've been through with anybody who wants to listen.

"And even the ones who don't want to hear me, if they are there they are going to hear me. I'm not sugarcoating anything and I haven't been an angel, but I'm tidying myself up. I intend to keep on that straight and narrow. No one can change the past but we can certainly do something about our future."

Added John: "The real test will come outside but I have an unswerving determination to keep focused. As far as sobriety is concerned I've been down that road before, but not through a programme like this.

"I went to church for quite a few years prior to backsliding so I know the joy, comfort and prosperity of leaving the substances alone. When I cleaned up before I didn't do as much preparation as I'm doing this time. Then I was quite vulnerable because I didn't have the tools of defence. Now I have the tools of defence."

Mark introduced himself as a recalled prisoner who violated his parole. He was only out for six weeks a couple of years ago and has had time added on to his sentence.

That doesn't seem to bother him, as, with the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme, he is more concerned about being better equipped to re-enter society. He turned down the opportunity for parole a second time.

"Coming back to Westgate, I don't look at it as a prison anymore, but as a school to learn to change my negative attitude," said Mark, who is in his 30s and never graduated from high school.

"By taking this programme it has helped me deal with my issues, it helped me to look into myself which is starting to be the healing process for recovery."

Mark has been in prison five or six times, for things like traffic offences and Regiment violations.

"Drugs once, but I feel to myself that they were all drug related through my negative attitude," he stated.

"By being in this programme and putting my all into the programme, I've had some very positive results come out of the programme. I came to the point where I realised that if you continue doing negative things you are going to continue to get negative results. It also helped me mature in my arrogance which had led me astray at one point.

"I'm thankful for the system in place to realise there is a better environment for you to change. More than anything I'm thankful to my higher power and Mrs. Black for helping me."

Mark looks up to John, calling him his godpa as a show of respect.

"As a senior member of this programme I look up to him," he says.

"This programme is a holistic approach, I'm eating better, stopped smoking cigarettes and changed my company drastically. It has helped me adopt a more productive lifestyle so that when I do get out it stays the same.

"A lot of times when we are in prison we change and when we get back out there we adapt those old habits. What I've have done is change my approach and have a positive attitude.

"It's working and I'm in a transitional period right now to the F Building which is a halfway house which will enable me to continue my therapy."

Added Mark: "Last time when I was released on parole I didn't have a place to stay or job and being on parole there are stipulations.

"This time I'm not in a hurry to get out, I don't want to make the same mistakes but at the same time take advantage of the programme to get the best of it."

Recently Mark watched the programme on drug addiction hosted by ZBM's Rick Richardson which he found very enlightening.

"I'm allowed a TV and I tuned in to the programme and I could see myself there as a recovering addict speaking positive about the dangers of drugs and the rewards of stopping using them," he stated.

"I can see the rewards, my family is back together. You are not just rewarding yourself, I believe you are rewarding the community as well. That's one less house you are breaking into or one less person whose handbag you snatch.

"This programme has really helped me to look into myself and see the mess. But it can be cleaned up and it takes time. I'm not in a hurry to get outside. I've found that being patient is working out better for me.

"This programme has really helped me and will stay with me the rest of my life."

Jack has also passed his 50th birthday. He, too, says he wants to clean up his act and is using the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme as the vehicle.

"I've had a problem with substances for a long time and I had reached the point where I could not stop. Cocaine and alcohol were my drugs of choice. Coming to Westgate saved my life.

"I had a court date and because of the people I know, I knew I could have gone the drug court route and played the game. One word I heard Mrs. Black use a lot to describe this programme is intensive. I have been in rehab twice before."

Jack has been through regression therapy in the Alternative Substance which he says is very painful...delving back into his past and getting to the core of the problem.

"I carry a lot of baggage and there is still a lot of stuff there," he concedes.

"I was sceptical (about opening up) because I knew where she was going to go, that she knew what buttons to push. I started it before and the counsellor then called me a textbook case, that I was easy to read. He started going there, pushing the buttons and I took off."

Jack, who was first arrested in 1967 and went to jail for the first time in 1970, is fast approaching his release date. He concedes he is fearful about slipping through the cracks again once he walks back into society.

"I have a support system that I have put into place," he says with hope.

"When I came here I was homeless and addicted, but I'm no longer homeless. A lot of things I'm doing now I'm doing by faith."

Thirty two years of going to prison has taught Jack some things about the system. He says if he was given the run of the prison he could `score' in 20 minutes, such is the seriousness of drugs at Westgate.

"If there are 100 guys in Westgate, 85 have a problem with drugs," he estimates.

"The recidivism rate being what it is, the commissioner has been given a mandate to tackle that. And the substance abuse problem is directly related to that. I don't have all those degrees but this is just my observation. If you tackle the substance abuse problem you tackle the recidivism. Isn't that just commonsense?

`There are people amongst us who have behaviour problems, anger management, sexually deviant behaviour, whatever, and that does exist, but the bulk of what's happening here is because of substance abuse. You have to be blind or close to stupid not to recognise it.

"I live amongst it. You're talking to somebody who has been in and out of the system for over 30 years. The guys I first got incarcerated with, their sons and nephews are here now. Why don't we concentrate the bulk of our efforts dealing with that problem?

"The guy doing nine months, where is he going? He's on coke, living in the trees and gets nine months in prison."

Said John: "You might have a good level of conversation with somebody and into the picture comes drugs. It makes me irate. `Yeah, I can't wait until I get out', but this is the same thing that brought you here. Do you want to make this place your home, because to a lot of them this is their home."

Jack related a story about the time a dog was brought in for a search, just to support his claim that drugs are prevalent in prison.

"The dogs that they have are trained to detect substances and to sit when they detect drugs," he stated.

"They took one of the dogs in an area in here and the dogs went berserk, his nose went into the air and stayed up there. What does that tell you?

"Some of the methods that are in place to help smuggle drugs in here I helped put in place. I know what they are. I threw out a challenge one time, give me some keys and let's take a walk. I don't know who's got what but in 20 minutes I would `score'.

"Some of the people in here have moved packages from Amsterdam to Istanbul to New York City to Bermuda. You need a good head to do that. You (Prison Officers) have a wife, rent, phone...a lot of things to distract your day.

"You know what we have? Time to think!."