- FILE
Street boys hitching a ride on the backs of motor vehicles are a headache to motorists and they are proving to be more than a handful to the police and the correctional services as well.
Leonardo Blair, Enterprise Reporter
AN UNRELENTING stream of delinquent young males into the custodial arm of the Department of Correctional Services has been forcing officials to channel the overspill into adult institutions such as the Horizon Remand Centre in St. Andrew.
Esmie Gordon, acting superintendent of the only juvenile remand centre in Jamaica - the St. Andrew Juvenile Remand Centre in Stony Hill - explained that police officers called the centre every day seeking new spaces but most times it was already full to its capacity of 48 detainees. Strict occupancy rules prevent them from accepting more than that number.
"We are under pressure with the male juveniles. Right now we need a facility that will house 100 boys on remand. The police are calling us everyday," said Superintendent Gordon.
During a recent Sunday Gleaner tour of the centre, she explained that the only alternative for the overspill of delinquents is the Horizon Adult Remand Centre and that centre is not equipped to rehabilitate the young males. So far, she says, the majority of the young boys under 18 years are being detained for gun-related charges but according to Commissioner of Corrections, Major Richard Reese, a number of parents are also taking their children to court for simple offences which can be dealt with through proper parenting.
"Some parents have too many children so they don't have the time to deal with the children," says Major Reese.
HANGING OUT AT THE STOP LIGHTS
Woman District Constable Henriques at the Half-Way Tree Police Station who has been dealing with juveniles for some time, explained that the number of young boys now hanging out at the stop lights in the area, is an indication of inadequate parental supervision.
"They have increased and those are the ones we are having problems with right now. Those and others we take in for lack of parental supervision," she explained.
In addition to the problem at the single remand centre, figures from the Department of Corrections also show that two of the three juvenile correction centres are overpopulated. The Hill Top Juvenile Correctional Centre in St. Ann, up to August 3, had 109 inmates, 20 more than the ideal capacity of 89. The Rio Cobre Juvenile Correctional Centre in St. Catherine has 136 inmates, 16 more than the ideal 120. Up to August 3, the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre in St. Ann was housing 39 inmates, six less than the ideal 45.
There are now some 331 males under the age of 18 in the local juvenile remand and correctional centres which should be accommodating just 311 inmates. The excess at the Horizon Remand Centre and special areas provided at other lock-ups have not been included in this figure.
"We have to do more now in terms of treating the source of the problem," says Major Reese. "At present we are just about coping with the demands that we have." With the current trend of juvenile detentions and correctional orders (sentences) from the courts, "Government has to realise that you have to build something bigger," explains Major Reese.
In the meantime, overcrowding at the maximum security prisons such as the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre and the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre have remained sore points. Tower Street currently accommodates 1,662 inmates when it should be accepting only 650 while the St. Catherine prison is holding some 1,301 inmates when it should ideally accommodate only 850 inmates.
Major Reese pointed out that a significant number of the young delinquents are being recruited by adults into a life of crime.
One youth at the Stony Hill Remand Centre, while admitting that he has been a handful for his parents, explained that he was ready to behave as he is now being faced with a custodial sentence from the courts for shop-breaking and larceny.
"I would like to go home and live with my father and show him respect. Mi a try write a letter to give to the judge fi tell har that," says the 16-year-old youth.
