Pubdate: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun Contact: 200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3 Fax: (604) 605-2323 Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Glenn Bohn B.C. FUGITIVE FREED FROM NEW YORK PRISON A West Vancouver man was released from a New York prison Friday after serving nine months for a drug crime more than three decades ago. In 1970, a long-haired, 19-year-old photography student then known as Christopher Perlstein sold $20 worth of LSD to an undercover cop. On Friday, a 51-year-old man with short, greying hair walked out of Woodbourne Correctional Institute hoping to become a legal resident of Canada. Allen Richardson, the name he assumed after his 1971 escape from a New York prison work site and illegal entry into Canada, thanked his wife, his friends, and the members of the public who have supported him during the last two years. "That enabled me to hold my head high and maintain some self-esteem and integrity," he said in an interview with The Vancouver Sun. "I knew that I was not a rather worthless individual enmeshed in the prison system, that I had a life that I could maintain some pride in -- accomplishments that were respected by other people." Declared the New York-born Richardson: "Canada is an exceptionally humane and compassionate place to live. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else." Richardson spoke to The Sun from a New York City hotel, where he and wife Amalia were staying. Late Friday, Richardson said he felt "frazzled" after his release and was looking forward to a soft bed. After the couple flies back to Vancouver today, Richardson will answer questions at an airport news conference. The couple's quiet, community-oriented life evaporated more than two years ago, when the RCMP arrested him after U.S. authorities were tipped to his whereabouts. "I hope I don't carry any bitterness beyond this," he said. "I haven't spent the last 21U2 years doing what I wished to do, and I'm not saying I wasn't responsible for it. But I've done what was required of me, and now I'd like to move forward and be positive, enjoy life in Canada, and resume being a productive individual." Amalia Richardson has said her husband told her about his conviction before their marriage in 1995. But the last nine months haven't been easy for her. "My mother died in the middle of it," said Amalia, who has breast cancer. "I've been back to Europe three or four times and it's been tough without Allen. But I've been very well supported, by friends, Canadians, and finally the Canadian government." Last April, Richardson abandoned his attempt to gain refugee status in Canada and returned to New York to face the U.S. judicial system. "I'm very proud of Allen to go back," his wife said. "After so many years, that takes a lot of courage." Last year, New York prison officials initially sent prisoner 71C0244 -- the 71 refers to 1971 -- to a high-security area of the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, N.Y., where Richardson was locked up alone for 22 hours of the day and not allowed any reading material. He spent the last seven months at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in a rural part of New York State south of the Catskill Mountains. "It's a fairly forbidding place when you approach it," Amalia Richardson said. "Inside, it's not too bad. It's one of these prisons they use for people who are on their way out of the system -- a much better atmosphere than the other place [Downstate], which was pretty horrifying." Allen Richardson said he read news magazines and listened daily to the CBC and BBC radio, trying to keep in touch with the world outside. He described Downstate as a prison with an "aggressive environment," but said guards kept a tight lid on problems. Woodbourne was quieter, but Richardson lived in a dormitory with 70 men. "You certainly didn't get any privacy, but it was basically a benign, non-threatening environment," he said. "One had to treat your fellow inmate with respect, and, in return, be respected." In 1971, Richardson began serving his drug sentence in Attica State Prison, one of New York's most infamous prisons. He witnessed the murder of another inmate and sought the protection of a group of political radicals led by Sam Melville, who had bombed a bank. "I was forced to defend myself from the attentions of those who, attracted by my youth, wished to rape and sodomize me, and those who merely wished to brutalize me for the sake of whatever unknown status this conferred in the hierarchy of prison life, whether they be guards or inmates," Richardson said in an affidavit. Richardson said Friday he wasn't assaulted or threatened during the last nine months in prison, but he doesn't regret the decision he made to escape in 1971, because he was terrified at Attica. "To this day, I've had to face the consequences," he said. Shortly after Richardson was transferred to a work camp, a revolt at Attica led partly by Melville ended with the deaths of 43 prisoners. Guards told Richardson he would be sent back to Attica, so the terrified young man walked away from a forest work site near the international border and illegally entered Canada. An anti-war group in Canada sheltered Richardson and gave him a false identity. Immigration Canada believes he obtained a false passport by locating the death records of an Allen Richardson. Between 1975 and 1980, he worked in Vancouver as a darkroom technician, then built musical instruments. Since 1982, he's worked at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory of particle and nuclear physics, at the south campus of the University of B.C. Richardson became a West Van director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a founder of the Pacific Bluegrass and Heritage Society, and a president of the Vintage Racing Club of B.C. But in 1998, an informant told U.S. officials where he lived, and the RCMP arrested him at work. A Canadian immigration inquiry later ordered Richardson out of Canada, because people convicted of crimes cannot legally enter the country without special permission. Last year, an official with the federal citizenship and immigration department signed a one-year permit that allows Richardson to re-enter Canada after serving his prison term in the U.S., on the understanding he will complete his parole in Canada. Aleksandar Stojicevic, Richardson's immigration lawyer, said Richardson isn't entirely free, because the B.C. correctional service can still impose reporting requirements, such as requiring him to report weekly to a parole officer and forbidding him to leave the country until his parole expires. According to inmate information that the New York department of correctional services posts on its Web site, Richardson became eligible for parole today, and his parole expires on March 24, 2004. Next Friday, when Richardson is scheduled to appear at an immigration hearing in Vancouver, Stojicevic hopes the board will grant Richardson the right to remain in Canada. Citizenship and Immigration Canada official Janice Fergusson said a person with a criminal record can seek a kind of pardon -- and offer evidence that they haven't committed other similar crimes -- so the legal barrier to permanent residency status is removed. Richardson's job as a senior research technician at TRIUMF is still open. "There's no reason not to take him back once he's resolved everything," TRIUMF spokesman Jim Hanlon said Friday. - --- MAP posted-by: GD