Fort Augusta women's correctional facility in St. Catherine. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Not all children in correctional centres are there for criminal offences. Some are inmates simply because they are either deemed uncontrollable by parents, or in need of care and protection.

The acts for which some of these children are remanded would not be classified as crimes if they were committed by adults. These include truancy and running away from home, which classify the children as uncontrollable.

In other instances, youngsters who are abused or neglected are classified as in need of care and protection, and are sometimes placed in these correctional facilities. Children in need of care and protection are also placed in facilities which are not correctional institutions.

no need for alarm

Major Richard Reese, Commissioner of Corrections, tells The Sunday Gleaner there is no need to be alarmed that children deemed to be in need of care and protection or who are uncontrollable are being housed in the same facilities as others convicted of crimes.

"We do a risk-needs assessment of all of our charges and that determines whether the person has an anger problem; whether the person has behavioural or psychiatric problem," says Maj. Reese.

He explains that a number of factors are considered in determining housing arrangements. Inmates are housed in dorms according to risk, age and other needs. Maj. Reese adds that they are also classified as either high-risk, medium-risk or low-risk inmates, each with their special case-management needs.

No room for delinquents

There are four juvenile correctional facilities on the island. One, the St. Andrew Juvenile Remand Centre, is for boys.

However, owing to the juvenile facilities running out of space, many youngsters are being remanded in adult facilities. According to the data supplied by the Department of Corrections, 32 young males are being kept at the Horizon Remand Centre, a high-security facility in Kingston which is guarded by soldiers.

Similarly, 16 young girls out of a total of 47, are being remanded at the Fort Augusta Correctional Centre for Women, also an adult facility.