Chuck: Utilise child diversion programme
Published:Friday | May 19, 2023 | 1:29 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
JAMAICANS ARE being encouraged to utilise the services of the Ministry of Justice, such as the national child diversion programme, to establish Jamaica as a ‘peaceful paradise’.
This call was made by Justice Minister Delroy Chuck at the ministry’s Child Diversion Forum on Thursday, which was held at Hotel Four Seasons under the theme ‘Redeeming Our Children: Promoting Justice for Peace and Harmony’.
“We believe that if citizens take up and really utilise these services of the Ministry of Justice then we would have less conflicts [and] less disputes remaining unsettled and really ensure that Jamaica can be that peaceful paradise that it should become,” he said.
Chuck applauded the success of the programme since its inception in 2020 with 1,020 referrals – 809 males and 211 females – mainly from the courts. Almost 50 per cent of them have been successfully completed, with others in progress.
The programme, which targets children aged 12 to 17 years, aims to redirect children who are alleged, accused of, or recognised as having infringed the penal law, without resorting to formal judicial proceedings.
It further seeks to rehabilitate youths, reduce the number of children exposed to the criminal justice system, and empower communities to resocialise child offenders.
The programme’s process entails six steps. First, the child is referred by the court or police; the child must then accept responsibility for the offence; the victim must give consent for the offender to participate; a risk assessment is conducted by the parish child diversion officer; a treatment plan is developed, approved, and implemented; and lastly, the child is reintegrated into the community or referred back to the court if the programme was unsuccessful.
RISK ASSESSMENTS
The risk assessments involved offering the children the necessary support needed through counselling, education, mentorship, drug use, and abuse treatment, remedial training, vocational training, community services, and conflict management.
A child can only be referred to the programme three times. However, a child may no longer be eligible for diversion if they commit or attempt another offence within three years of starting the diversion programme.
Some offences eligible for the programme include indecent assault, unlawful wounding, simple larceny, negligent use of fire, noisy and disorderly conduct, damage to property, littering in public places and sexual intercourse with a person under age 16.
Chuck says there is a demand for more child diversion officers across several parishes, as at least two members are needed.
In highlighting the restorative justice programme in schools, the minister stated that having disagreements was a natural part of human life but that it should not lead to fighting.
Instead of capturing a fight between school-aged children on video for upload to social media, Chuck urged students from Charlie Smith High School, Jamaica College, Haile Selassie High, and Kingston High - who were present at the event - to help to stop the fight and to become peace ambassadors.
“Jamaica is suffering from far too many conflicts, far too many violent disagreements, and oftentimes people feel that the only way to solve a conflict or a disagreement is to use violence,” he said. “We feel that RJ (restorative justice) can, in fact, be the solution instead of abuses, threats, and violence.”
CHILD CARE PROTECTION ACT
Education minister Fayval Williams remarked that her ministry has been working towards amending Section 24 of the Child Care Protection Act.
“Section 24, currently as it stands, if a parent brings a child before a judge to say, ‘My child is uncontrollable’, they’re gonna go to an adult correctional centre, and we don’t believe that is the path for the child,” she said.
She gave the reassurance that the education ministry was closer to getting this amendment to the Parliament.
In reference to the Jamaica School Readiness Assessment (JSRA), which was recently administered to over 27,000 four-year-olds islandwide who were assessed, Williams stated that 10,010 of them were highlighted as needing intervention so as to not struggle after transitioning to primary and secondary schools.
The students were assessed on behavioural issues, early literacy, early numeracy, and socio-economic issues.
“Behavioural issues emerge from that age as well, and if we just leave it up to chance, if we just move children along, we are going to get what we have today: children who can’t read at the level that they should be reading when they reach primary school,” she said.
She added that there was “a massive” amount of work to be done given that children learned bad behaviours from mimicking what they witnessed happening in society.