Samuda: Violators of Rio Cobre wards will be punished - Probe deepens into alleged abuses; jail block uses being reviewed
Published:Saturday | February 13, 2021 | 12:28 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
The Government has signalled that it is prepared to take any disciplinary actions warranted, based on investigations being conducted by the Office of the Services Commission and other oversight bodies, into allegations that correctional officers at the Rio Cobre Juvenile Correctional Centre have subjected wards to human-rights abuses.
Describing calls for him to take action as “inappropriate and, in fact, not legal”, Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security Senator Matthew Samuda said that his ministry, in consultation with the Office of the Services Commission, would pursue “any and all disciplinary measures deemed appropriate once investigations are concluded”.
In a statement to the Senate yesterday, Samuda noted that much of the Independent Commission of Investigation’s (INDECOM) report and assessment of the allegations by the wards at the juvenile correctional centre was said to be inconclusive by investigators.
However, he said the ministry has asked the Child Protection and Family Services Agency and the Centre of Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse as well as its own Inspectorate branch to conduct further investigation into the matter.
On the vexed issue of “uncontrollable” children who are being held in juvenile correctional centres, Samuda said that they should not have been sent to those facilities in the first place.
He wants the discretionary power granted to the courts under the Child Care and Protection Act to issue a correctional order to a juvenile deemed uncontrollable removed.
“Quite frankly, we have spoken about it for too long and it is time to act,” he declared.
With 26 juveniles deemed uncontrollable now in the custody of the Department of Correctional Services, Samuda said that arrangements were being made to have them separated from those criminally charged or convicted.
Permanent relocation
Consultations are also being held with the courts and the education minister to identify a permanent and appropriate relocation for the wards.
Turning to the reputed jail block at the Rio Cobre facility, where wards had been locked away for various reasons, Samuda said he had instructed that its use be reviewed.
In its report, INDECOM revealed that wards divulged that they had been stripped down to their underwear when they were being locked away for non-violent offences such as “talking back” or being absent from the dormitory at lockdown time.
Samuda said that he has instructed that the jail block should not be used without written instructions from the superintendent.
“The intention for the area is not that it is to be used as a punishment, but rather as an area of separation when the assessment of the superintendent is that either the ward is in danger or endangering the well-being of others,” he said.
He said that the reported practice of correctional officers ordering wards to strip should also end.