Ex-inmate 23, manages shop with dreams of owning a supermarket

Apr 20, 2025 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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By: Christal Yong

Kaieteur News- At just 23 years old, Joshua Haynes is a father of three, a husband, and a small business owner on Pineapple Street, Front Road, Georgetown. But behind his quiet determination and budding variety shop, lies a troubled past marked by poor choices, prison time, and a redemption story.

Growing up in a household shadowed by gambling, Haynes was introduced to risky behaviour early.

“When I didn’t get money to gamble, I started right at home taking $100, $200, until I ended up on the road, mixing with bad friends,” he recalled.  Haynes added, “Gambling is a serious thing, man. It’s a thief; it’s a murderer… it destroys you.”

By the age of 15, Joshua was already in juvenile detention. After his release, instead of choosing a new path, he drifted deeper into crime, falling in with older, more dangerous influences. By 2020, when he was just 19, he was involved in a robbery. He fled the scene but was later arrested; however, he escaped lawful custody but was recaptured. Haynes was then charged with robbery under arms and escaping lawful custody. The court sentenced him to five years in prison.

Prison was no easy road. Joshua vividly remembers the fear and pressure of adjusting to life behind bars.

“When you just go in, you don’t know who you violate, who’s watching. You could lose your life in there if you don’t know how to move,” he said. “If you look like a basil (a fool) people gon treat you like one,” Haynes told The Waterfalls.

Determined not to fall victim to prison life, he made a conscious decision to blend in, stay out of trouble, and grab any opportunity for personal development. Haynes started by doing road work, then moved on to farm duties, and eventually landed in the prison trade shop, where he learned welding, construction, joinery, electrical installation, and farming.

“I tell myself I ain’t coming out of jail with ignorance. I going out with something,” he said.

Structure and discipline became part of his daily life. He would wake up at dawn, bathe before meals, and spend full days working on the prison grounds. He also found solace in prayer, something that helped center him during his sentence.

“In jail, I used to pray five times a day. Now, sometimes I barely pray two or three, I do feel guilty.”

But perhaps the most consistent source of strength came from outside the prison walls, his wife, Rehanna Haynes, 22, the mother of his children, who stood by him throughout his incarceration.

“Since jail, she had my back. She’s been there through everything,” he said.

After his release, Haynes admitted to slipping back into old patterns briefly, but something shifted in him. He felt the weight of shame not just from his community, but from his own family. The moment was sobering.

He said, “I jump into a police van, and everybody watching me, my whole family, people bad talking me. That was it for me. I tell myself: no more.”

He quickly found work as a security guard, doing double shifts just to stay busy and avoid slipping back into crime. It was during this time that he began observing how the Chinese supermarket he worked for operated.

“I start watching how the Chinese does do business. I say, if they could invest their money, who is me not to do the same?”

With the money he saved from working two months straight, he opened a small variety shop. Though he made some missteps, spending too much money fixing up the place instead of stocking it, he’s learned from the experience and continues to grow.

“You don’t have to start big. Once you got stock, you could move. I realize I was focusing too much on the look and not enough on the substance,” Haynes said.

Today, the father of three runs the shop full time. But he’s not done yet. His next goal is to open a cook shop next door for his mother, who’s known for her cooking. Long-term, he sees his business growing into a supermarket and wants to use his experience to help others start their own businesses.

He related, “I always tell myself, I want to live off my own strength. I don’t like watching what people got. That’s bad mind.”

He also continues to share advice with young people who may be headed down the same path he once followed.

“Just be yourself, man. Don’t watch people. Stay away from bad company. We didn’t come pon this earth to do wrong, we came to do good.”

Haynes’ story is one of painful mistakes, quiet resilience, and the strength it takes to walk away from the crowd and stand on your own. With the support of his wife, the love for his children, and the lessons learned behind bars, he’s building more than just a shop; he’s building a new life.

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