Youth do not need jail time to find themselves

For his engagement in the ultimate crime, Richard Huggins spent 26 years of his most productive youth in prison.

He is fortunate, though, to have encountered his artistic self at Carrera, surrounded by a sea of sharks, a sure deterrence to those prisoners who may dream of staging an escape.

Instead, Huggins explored himself and his inert artistic talents that he was not aware of previously. He has emerged both in the physical and spiritual, never to return to a life of stultifying crime

His message for the youth of today is that “looking for fame and rank” is a dead end, literally.

“It (art) was a gift given to me by God; it was a talent hidden in me that I never knew or explored,” says Huggins of the capacity he discovered in prison.

Released from jail in March of this year, Huggins is about to hold the first exhibition of his paintings.

There are positive examples in the life of Huggins which need to be spread, understood and taken cognizance of, especially by young people who are circulating in society believing that crime is their only option.

His guidance for the youth is to search within themselves for the talents which may be there, but which go unnoticed as the focus of their lives is elsewhere on the negative.

For the prison authorities and the State, they should take the self-realisation by Huggins the prisoner, as incentive for redoubling the effort to avoid the forever reopening of the jail cells for returning prisoners.

It is well known that such recidivistic criminality escalates from petty crimes, to robbery with intent, the peddling of illegal drugs and weapons and ultimately murder.

Huggins intends, through his actions, to lead other prisoners to find their true worth. Even more important for individuals on the outside, is to realise that arriving at their true worth does not require them to pay their dues with prison time.

The evidence is all around the society of the present, that hope of achievement is first guided by the inner desire for movement beyond the situations in which especially young people have landed as a direct result of life choices, and so too for circumstances which they did not shape.

Huggins found his artistic talents within a cell for the condemned with very thin resources. From there, he reached beyond confinement to discover and practice his native artistic talents. There are those outside of the prison system who should ignore the return tickets in their pockets to life in a state prison.

Outside of the prisons, we must tell the youth there is the opportunity to prepare for a career, a life, the real possibility of family, for social and economic advancement and positive self-realisation. Inside the jail cells, the outstanding prospect is life without an upward curve. Those with the responsibility for the young must tell them of the opportunities outside of a jail cell.

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