Former Attorney General of Barbados, Adriel Brathwaite.
A former Attorney General of this country is raising concern about the state of the juvenile justice system, and contending that urgent attention must be paid to reforming it.
In a statement released recently, attorney-at-law Adriel Brathwaite, who served as Attorney General of Barbados from 2010 to 2018, said the groundwork for such reform was done before the Democratic Labour Party left office and need only be followed through with.
He made the comments while referring to two incidents, which occurred over the last weeks involving minors. According to Brathwaite, those incidents bring into focus the need for change.
“Between 2014 and 2017 much research was conducted on the reform of the juvenile justice system in Barbados. A draft bill was prepared and circulated. The events of 2018 intervened and prevented the bill from reaching Parliament. The work has been done. Two years is more than enough time for Government to enact modern juvenile justice legislation and practices in Barbados,” he contended.
The former AG went further, maintaining that a modern juvenile justice system would require significant training of “all who would possibly be in contact with a minor who comes into police custody and before the courts”, including the police, magistrates, welfare officers and the church.
“Our system would and must see two victims in any incident and provide for both. The system supports where possible the offended party, damage to property for example may be put right by the child or his family and where possible every attempt is made to reform the child. I have deliberately used the word “child” because we at present are quick to call them “criminals” and forget that they are our children in need of our guidance, love, support and direction,” he stated.
Referring specifically to the incident involving the minors who were slapping elderly gentlemen in the city which made the rounds on social media, Brathwaite expressed concern on two levels – the nature and source of the interventions and the fact that with modern technology a human resources manager somewhere may download these pictures and use them as the reason not to employ these young boys.
“A modern system would see the police properly trained with clear guidelines on what interventions are required. These interventions may indeed involve the Nature Fun Ranch. These interventions may involve apologies being issued to the victims. These interventions may involve counselling. What the interventions would not involve is the parade of our young offenders, the public apology and the public comments by other actors that they are satisfied with the outcome,” he stated.
The former AG added, “The boys have apologised. The media moves on to the next story. The actors move on to the next issue, but our present juvenile justice system would not have adequately addressed the issues which may have contributed to the boys’ behaviour. We would require a psychosocial analysis of each child. A review of their living conditions and familial support. Suitable resources, whether they be from welfare, child care, probation, police, NCSA, obtained and applied so that these boys would truly have the opportunity to reform and realise that slapping the elderly for fun is just not allowed in modern Barbados.”
Brathwaite is therefore calling on Government to “move with haste to modernise” our juvenile justice system in order to help save more of our children.