Mark Titus, Freelance Writer

Reese … Ideally, we need to establish a minimum of three juvenile correctional centres for each county for both girls and boys.

'The new centre will have a capacity for 250 juveniles and it is the intention of the department to house male juvenile offenders and those remanded by the courts there.'-file

WESTERN BUREAU:Commissioner of Corrections Major Richard Reese says plans are well on the way for the establishment of a juvenile remand centre in Montpelier, St. James, that is expected to put an end to the age-old problem of placing minors in adult correctional facilities.

"In order to face the challenges of overcrowding in our juvenile correctional centres, along with the need to establish a female juvenile facility, the Department of Corrections did an aggressive search for an appropriate location and we were able to identify the property at Montpelier in St. James," he tells The Sunday Gleaner. "We then got the necessary approval from the Ministry of Agriculture to use the facility, and we also had it gazetted as a juvenile correctional and remand centre," Reese adds.

250-person capacity

He discloses that the new centre will have a capacity for 250 juveniles and it is the intention of the department to house male juvenile offenders and those remanded by the courts there. He says the capacity of the Montpelier correctional centre will facilitate the transfer of male juveniles from the Rio Cobre Correctional Centre, which will then be used, exclusively, as a female correctional centre. This will result in the conversion of the Armadale Juvenile Correc-tional Centre for girls in Alexandria, St. Ann, into a male juvenile remand centre.

"All these measures are short-term solutions," Reese notes. "Ideally, we need to establish a minimum of three juvenile correctional centres for each county for both girls and boys."

He further discloses that the Montpelier facility requires two 15-seater buses, one of which has already been bought. Major Reese says the next step is to make "submissions for staffing and a review to see if what we have asked for is adequate, and then await approval from Cabinet".

Roxanne Samuels, public education and special-projects manager at the office of the Children's Advocate in Kingston, is looking forward to the completion of the Montpelier juvenile correctional facility.

"Minors should not be placed in the same facility as adults, but the change needs to begin with the construction of a new facility, because when they are remanded by the courts, there is nowhere suitable to place them," Samuels tells The Sunday Gleaner. "We are pleased that the Correctional Services has plans to build another facility and I am sure that when it is completed, it will go a far way in solving the problem," she adds.

no offenders

The Child Development Agency (CDA), which has statutory responsibility for children who are in need of care and protection, as well as those experiencing behavioural problems, says currently, there are no juvenile offenders in police lock-ups in the parishes of St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny.

"Our responsibility is to ensure that no child is kept in police lock-ups except in instances where they are remanded by a judge for serious offences," Juliet Grant, head of the CDA offices in Hanover and Westmoreland, states. "And even in that event, our officers visit the lock-ups daily, where we speak to them and even examine them for injuries or any other signs of abuse."

The St. James police at present have 12 minors in their custody, most of whom are repeat offenders who the courts deem a threat to society.

"Minors in our custody are remanded by the courts, and these are normally repeat offenders with charges ranging from murder, shooting with intent to illegal possession and other serious offences," explains Superintendent Steven McGreggor, divisional commander for St. James.

"We, however, work closely with CDA and other agencies and ensure that they are kept in cells by themselves and that they are protected from direct interaction with adults in our custody," he adds.

Says McGreggor: "We must, however, bear in mind that a large per cent of the serious crimes that are being committed are by persons in that age group. And I am of the view that unless we begin to hold some of our parents accountable, we will be getting nowhere."