‘No child born bad’

ACCORDING TO one lawyer, it is very harmful and damaging for children to be imprisoned under the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA), even though they have not committed an offence.

This is because they are exposed to interacting with children who have committed a variety of crimes and are placed in the same penal institutions as them.

In an interview with The Gleaner yesterday, Nichole Chambers, senior legal officer at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), highlighted that in most cases the behavioural changes in the children who are given a correctional order by the courts to be confined in a correctional facility were often ‘acting out’ due to experiencing traumatic events and enduring traumatic circumstances and were then left untreated.

“It’s traumatic to know that a 13-year-old could be clinically depressed because ... [they] may have been a victim of abuse, may have been sexually abused, may have never told anyone about it but lived with this daunting experience and has never been treated ... but they’re locked away because of this behaviour when it manifests itself,” she said.

Chambers argued that the current legislation appeared to be punishing children for their behaviours, which had manifested as a result of past experiences. She was speaking ahead of today’s scheduled meeting in Parliament to further amend the Act, in particular, the repeal of section 24, which speaks to children being deemed uncontrollable because they are exhibiting maladaptive or antisocial behaviours that are seen as intolerable.

She explained that examples of such behaviours included self-harm practices, suicidal ideation, poor attendance in school, bullying others.

“I recall having a child that he was getting into so much trouble ... and come before the court [consecutively], until I said to him one day ‘why do you keep doing these things?’ and I asked for him to be assessed and it was indeed the fact that the young child witnessed the murder of his mom and has never been treated and have never gotten over that,” she explained.

Chambers stated that although section 24 had various remedies that the court could look at, invariably, the child would be given a correctional order.

“Some persons may call it a status offence because if an adult does the same thing (displaying irrational and not-of-the-norm behaviour), that adult would not be sent to prison ...s o it seems to be because I am a child I am locked up in the Department of Correctional Services,” she argued.

EXPOSED TO WRONGDOING

She further noted that these children who were sent into the Department of Correctional Services’ (DCS) care, it did not suggest that these actions would stop but that the “nerve-wracking” reality was that children are being exposed to criminal behaviours from the children who have committed offences and that it was highly possible that the kids will turn into unlawful adults.

“There are no bad children. There’s no child that has been born bad, I am of the strong view, and I know that there are other persons like myself that believe that something may have happened to have caused a child to be behaving in this particular way and so it’s to get to the root cause of it,” she said.

Offering another example, Chambers expressed that she dealt with a young girl who routinely displayed violent actions. She stated that after being properly assessed, it was revealed that she was not only a product of her mother being raped and was later resented because of her resemblance to her father but, she had also been raped and was carrying those emotional burdens on her own.

“The more I start seeing these cases, it’s the more it daunted to me that there must be a solution to the issue and so I worked with this child for more than three years even though I’m not a social worker ... she was assessed and treated and today is a contributing member of society. So, there are many children out there like her and I would imagine that there are still many of them in the care of the DCS ... because their habits or behaviour landed them before the courts ... and so that is where we look to break the cycle,” she said.

According to Chambers, children who have not broken the law but are still in DCS custody must first be evaluated before being brought back before the court to have their correctional order revoked, possibly amended, and changed to a child in need of care and protection because of their behavioural issues.

She continued by saying that she was unable to give an estimate on how long this process might take because it would depend on a variety of variables, including the number of kids in DCS custody, the number of kids with court orders, and if those orders were about to expire.

“We have not looked into that as yet but whether it will allow for a retroactive action, I am not sure. That is something that dialogue will have to be had,” she told The Gleaner.

On June 29, a $200 million CPFSA Therapeutic Centre was officially opened at the Maxfield Park Children’s Home in St Andrew. The centre is for children who are not ordered by the court to be in a residential child treatment facility but gives the child access for treatment from their home. It will facilitate medical treatment, social intervention, guidance and psychological support for victims of child abuse. The specialised residential therapeutic facility at the Windsor Home in St Ann is slated to be opened soon and is a residential treatment facility.

“We’re not looking to have an institution, what we’re looking to do is to have children in a confined space, to be treated so they can rejoin their family or their guardian from whence they came from. So, that is the rationale behind it,” Chambers added.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com

The new legislation is intended to amend the Child Care and Protection Act to:

. Repeal section 24 of the Act, which makes provisions (which may include a correctional order) regarding the treatment of a child brought before a court by a parent or guardian who claims to be unable to control the child;

. Provide, instead, for any child alleged to have behavioural challenges to be brought before a Children’s Court as being in need of care and protection;

. Make provision for the orders that may be made by the Court in respect of such a child to include a residential therapeutic order or a non-residential therapeutic order, having regard to the results of a social enquiry report and a psychological or psychiatric report in respect of the child ordered by the Court; and

. Provide that a Children’s Court before which any child is brought under Part I of the Act, other than a child alleged to have committed an offence, may order that the child be placed under the care of a children’s officer for a specified period not exceeding three years (instead of a probation and after-care officer as currently obtains under the Act).