Chester Sam­bra­no

Se­nior Re­porter/ Pro­duc­er

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

The Child­hood Jus­tice Col­lec­tive (CJC) has crit­i­cised pro­pos­als to try child of­fend­ers as adults, say­ing the ap­proach mis­un­der­stands child de­vel­op­ment and vi­o­lates na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al law.

On Sat­ur­day, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der said it may be time for the coun­try to start try­ing child of­fend­ers as adults in court.

His com­ment came af­ter a 13-year-old from Orop­une Gar­dens was ar­rest­ed along with a 26-year-old in a foiled at­tempt to smug­gle con­tra­band in­to the Max­i­mum-Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) in Arou­ca on Fri­day night.

How­ev­er, the CJC said such poli­cies threat­en the progress T&To has made in safe­guard­ing chil­dren.

“Chil­dren are not minia­ture adults. Their cog­ni­tive, emo­tion­al, so­cial, and the val­ue to care for oth­ers are still de­vel­op­ing. Ex­pect­ing chil­dren to demon­strate adult-lev­el re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and pun­ish­ing them as such ig­nores this evolv­ing cog­ni­tive de­vel­op­ment process and sets them up for fur­ther harm,” the coali­tion said.

The group ex­pressed con­cern over Alexan­der’s com­ments, ar­gu­ing that puni­tive mea­sures are un­like­ly to re­duce crime.

“Ju­ve­nile pro­tec­tion and jus­tice sys­tems should fo­cus on ac­cess to qual­i­ty ed­u­ca­tion, time­ly coun­selling, in­clud­ing peer res­o­lu­tion, sup­port to fam­i­lies, and rein­te­gra­tion, which are all proven to pro­tect chil­dren from en­gag­ing in crime,” CJC said.

The coali­tion al­so warned that plac­ing chil­dren along­side adults con­vict­ed of crime could in­crease their risk of in­volve­ment in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. Stud­ies show most pris­on­ers in T&T did not com­plete pri­ma­ry or sec­ondary school and grew up in eco­nom­i­cal­ly and so­cial­ly de­pressed com­mu­ni­ties, yet the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor has seen lit­tle im­prove­ment in ad­dress­ing struc­tur­al is­sues that put chil­dren at risk.

CJC crit­i­cised the state’s fo­cus on polic­ing and mil­i­tary-style re­spons­es to child be­hav­iour.

“When state re­spons­es to child mis­be­hav­iour are led by po­lice and mil­i­tary log­ic rather than by ed­u­ca­tors or so­cial work­ers, chil­dren are repo­si­tioned from de­pen­dents who need sup­port to sub­jects of sur­veil­lance, pun­ish­ment and con­trol. This is not child pro­tec­tion; it is state ne­glect dis­guised as dis­ci­pline,” the coali­tion said.

The group re­mind­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of her ear­li­er vi­sion for chil­dren, in­clud­ing the Lap­top Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gramme, and called for a re­newed in­vest­ment in chil­dren’s so­cial well­ness, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, and emo­tion­al health. “Ed­u­ca­tion can­not be con­fined to class­rooms or screens and good grades, and it must al­so in­clude car­ing for oth­ers, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, and men­tal health sup­port,” CJC said.

CJC said Min­is­ter Alexan­der’s pro­pos­al di­rect­ly con­tra­dicts the Chil­dren’s Act, which pro­hibits the im­pris­on­ment of chil­dren and man­dates care-based al­ter­na­tives. “The Act de­ters im­pris­on­ment of mi­nors; es­tab­lish­es Ju­ve­nile Courts, re­quires the sep­a­ra­tion of chil­dren from adult of­fend­ers, and pri­ori­tis­es re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion over ret­ri­bu­tion. This law recog­nis­es that pun­ish­ment with­out care is in­ef­fec­tive,” the coali­tion said.

The col­lec­tive al­so high­light­ed the coun­try’s in­ter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions un­der the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child, which re­quires that the best in­ter­ests of the child guide all state ac­tions. De­ten­tion must be a last re­sort and chil­dren must be sep­a­rat­ed from adults and treat­ed in ways that pro­mote dig­ni­ty and rein­te­gra­tion. CJC said the Min­is­ter’s com­ments dis­re­gard these prin­ci­ples, turn­ing the jus­tice sys­tem in­to a tool of pun­ish­ment rather than restora­tion.

“Try­ing chil­dren as adults would not de­ter crime; it would deep­en it. It would pro­duce trau­ma­tised youth who emerge from adult pris­ons more vi­o­lent and more alien­at­ed. It would trans­fer re­spon­si­bil­i­ty from failed so­cial sys­tems to the child, blam­ing them for the con­di­tions that shaped their be­hav­iour. True jus­tice must ask: what led this child here, and what can we do dif­fer­ent­ly?” the coali­tion said.

CJC called on the Gov­ern­ment, the Op­po­si­tion, and the na­tion to re­ject puni­tive rhetoric and reaf­firm com­mit­ment to a child jus­tice sys­tem ground­ed in care, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, and dig­ni­ty.