Two issues came to the fore in Trinidad and Tobago this week that are co-related and which must be dealt with seriously if we are to address some of the societal ills that currently plague us.
In the first instance, there was an uproar in some sectors after the court seemingly handed down lenient sentences to Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo, now adults but who were teenagers when they were charged with six-year-old Sean Luke’s 2006 murder.
Many found that the sentences of 17 and a half and 11 and a half years for Mitchell and Chatoo respectively did not suit the gravity of their heinous crime against such a young child just beginning his life.
Somewhere in her argument, High Court Judge Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds noted that the convicted murders’ ages at the time of the crime meant they could not feel the full brunt of the law, since they were minors at the time of the act.
Lost in her judgement, however, was the fact that even as the two spent years in jail awaiting trial, the system may not have sufficiently treated their psychological conditions to determine what led to their brutal attack against the innocent child. In fact, some psychiatric experts argue that it is only when the prison system affords such treatment to prisoners during incarceration that they can truly be rehabilitated. Needless to say, it is one of the aspects sorely missing from within our correctional system and may be hampering prisoners’ ability to prepare themselves to reintegrate into society upon release.
The other issue that came up and which is linked is the concern raised by both the Children’s Authority and T&T Police Service’s Child Protection Unit over a recent spate of sex crimes against minors. The CPU’s Superintendent Claire Guy-Alleyne has indicated that a zero-tolerance approach to such crimes has resulted in 1,016 cases of sexual abuse being reported and 86 offenders being charged in the first six months of this year. Statistics from the Children’s Authority and TTPS meanwhile show that more than 90 per cent of children who are victims of sexual abuse know their abuser.
Guy-Alleyne noted that while supporting laws had given them a boost to fight such crimes, the issue of mental health must be seriously addressed when weighing the reasons behind violence and sexual abuse against minors and indeed, even adults. Taking the issue within our prison system, therefore, where, within our current justice system, would the perpetrators of such crime get such desired treatment?
To be clear, the issues of children committing acts or murder or adults committing child sexual abuse crimes are not new.
Yet, if we never address the psychological issues which lead perpetrators to commit crimes like those against the Sean Lukes and the underage girls we have seen in cases in recent weeks, we may be consigned to seeing such problems become worse, not better. In that regard, we urge the authorities to heed the calls from these two authorities to revise the manner in which this aspect of the process is dealt with.