Ryan Bachoo
Lead Editor-Newsgathering
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander says it may be time for the country to start trying child offenders as adults in court.
His comment comes 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. Both individuals were arrested after a targeted search of a river in the area, according to a T&T Police Service media release yesterday.
Among the items found are 1,050 grams of cannabis, 256 packs of cigarettes, 15 cellphones, 16 drone batteries, 12 charging blocks, 16 headsets, 15 USB cables, and four nail clippers.
In a conversation with Guardian Media yesterday, following the announcement of the successful interception led by Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro, Alexander praised the intelligence and cooperation between the police and prisons. However, he went a step further and said the nation may soon have to look at trying children as adults in court.
The former senior superintendent of the police said, “We must now look at where we can definitely, in the law, treat someone who’s of a childish age as an adult in a court of law because of his actions. We have no choice. Some persons, because of their actions, need to be tried in a court of law as an adult. It happens all over the world; then you might see a change in the behaviour when they realise how serious it is.”
The call is not unprecedented. In some states in the United States of America, there are state-level laws that allow for children as young as eight to be tried as adults. Other countries such as England, Wales and Jamaica also have the ability to try children as adults based on the crime and, in other cases, the discretion of the judge.
Last month, speaking with reporters at the launch of the UNDP’s Regional Human Development Report 2025, Alexander said, “I can’t say children, because some of them don’t behave like children. So, we are saving those students in the school. I don’t say children anymore, because they don’t behave like that,” in response to a question on school violence.
He also referenced the fire in the auditorium of St Benedict’s College in La Romain on Wednesday, which forced the school to postpone classes until tomorrow. Without divulging details, Alexander said, “These same young children, they don’t burn down their Nike sneakers when it is bought for them, but they are lighting fires at the nation’s schools. When they have all the fancy clothes that their parents are purchasing for them, how come they don’t burn it? How come they don’t rip it up? Why are they doing that to the nation’s schools?”
On September 19, a 13-year-old student of the Coryal Secondary School, Cumuto, was charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The Form One student was the first person to be charged by officers from the newly formed School Oriented Policing Unit (SOPU). The unit, which is responsible for assigning police officers to 62 high-risk secondary schools, is working alongside the Ministry of Education to maintain law and order.
Meanwhile, a teenage boy was arrested on a school compound last Wednesday after he was found in possession of a quantity of cannabis.
The minister said he fears there are not enough consequences to deter young people from committing criminal acts. He further explained, “They are making jokes about serious matters, believing that all they will receive is a bare slap on the wrist.”
Alexander praised the collaboration between the T&T Police Service and the Prisons Service in foiling the attempted smuggling of the contraband into MSP. He said, “They have been outstanding–the new prisons commissioner at this time, who’s holding the fort, Mr (Hayden) Forde, and his team at the prison. Not everybody at the prison should be painted with the same brush. But let me say, I continue to support those agencies under my command. I am the intelligence arm for the apparatus in Trinidad and Tobago under national security, because the effort is not one team, not two teams, not three or four. There are a number of agencies involved in this war against crime. Not fight anymore. We stopped fighting. It has become a war.”
The foiled attempt to smuggle contraband into MSP is the second in less than a week. Three men were taken into custody by officers from the TTPS on September 29 after they were caught attempting to smuggle contraband into MSP Arouca via a drone. A subsequent raid by police within the facility led to the seizure of several contraband items stashed within cells by prisoners.
BOX
La Horquetta teen shot multiple times while asleep
A 14-year-old boy from Phase 2, La Horquetta, was hospitalised Friday night after being shot multiple times in both legs while asleep on a couch.
According to reports, the teen was on a couch near the front door of the living room around 11:30 pm when a volley of gunshots rang out. His aunt discovered him bleeding and alerted his parents, who rushed him to the Arima Health Facility.
Police recovered 16 spent shell casings on the road outside the house, consisting of 9mm and .40 calibre rounds.
The boy was treated for injuries to his left lower leg and right upper leg and remains warded in stable condition.–Anna-Lisa Paul