The Law and Saint Vincent

March 21 - On St. Vincent, I again lived with an attorney, Simone Truchot.

She worked for Mustique and was, like all the other people we met, very interesting. She had previously moved to St. Vincent to work as a magistrate and held that position for several years. She explained that corruption and political dealings behind the scenes almost made her walk out many times. But she stated that she did not give in to the pressure and people soon learned that she was a fair judge and respected her for that, even if she had an armed guard outside her home due to death threats.


She arranged for me to tour the prison on the island. That was the highlight of all my vocational visits. Parts of the prison were built in the 1800s and it was amazing that it was still being used without much renovation. However, I have to add that St. Vincent is getting ready to move all the inmates to a new prison that was being finished while we were there. The second in command gave me the tour and as we walked around, all the inmates seemed very happy to see him and all greeted him, um, warmly?

I met a man on death row who immediately began telling me that he was ready to die if that meant he did not have to continue to live in that cell as he was. I was speechless.

After the tour, I met the equivalent of the warden and after I was introduced as an attorney from the United States he asked if I was a human rights attorney. I said oh, no, not at all. He replied, "good, because that is a human rights nightmare back there." Again, I was speechless.

All in all, St. Vincent was wonderful and in my opinion the most interesting.

Lillah McBride