Lifeline for kids running afoul of law
Published:Wednesday | April 6, 2022 | 12:13 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Approximately 270 children have been successfully diverted from Jamaica’s criminal-justice system through targeted intervention.
That disclosure was made by Venisa Clarke-Lee, child diversion national coordinator in the Ministry of Justice.
Child diversion involves measures designed to deal with child offenders aged 12-17 without resorting to formal judicial proceedings.
In 2021, the police reported that 26 children aged 14-17 were arrested and charged for serious crimes committed across the island.
Among those, six were charged with murder, five with shooting with intent, and four with illegal possession of firearm, including robbery.
But 660 of the nation’s children to date have had some form of intervention, including counselling, sexual and reproductive health education, drug abuse treatment, mentorship, and training.
Those measures have spared them conviction and custodial time at penal institutions, Clarke-Lee said on Tuesday.
She had given a progress update on the diversion programme at the Savanna-la-Mar Seventh-day Adventist Church in Westmoreland.
About 41 per cent of those children enrolled in intervention, which were first implemented in 2020, have successfully completed the programme.
While reporting that compliance is high, Clarke-Lee indicated that less than nine per cent of children who were formally referred to the programme have since been redirected to the formal justice system.
“We do have a high compliance rate at over 80 per cent of children in the programme, but we have had to send back 52 to the court or the police, the reference point from which they come to us,” Clarke-Lee said.
The remaining 390 children are still being treated with various diversion methods.
“We try to direct children in the right way or to change their ways of thinking. We try to ensure that there is justice, while at the same time, ensure that the children who will do these things that children do are not affected for the rest of their lives,” said Clarke-Lee.
Children who commit certain offences may be admitted to the diversion programme once they have acknowledged guilt. Some of those offences include damage to property, indecent assault, simple larceny, sexual intercourse with someone under the age of 16, and unlawful wounding.
“While in the programme, I’ve got some extra push and encouragement from my counsellor and the child diversion officer. They always told me to have a good mindset and attitude so that I can make good choices,” the national diversion coordinator said, quoting from the testimony of a 15-year-old enrollee.