The building that housed girls at the Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre was unfit, said Commissioner of Corrections June Spence-Jarrett.

"This dorm was not built to accommodate children. It's out of desperation why we had to place the children there," she said, adding that the dorm had not been built to international specifications.

When asked how long the girls had been housed there, Spence-Jarrett said wards might have been relocated to the building for over a year.

She agreed that the design and structure of a detention facility should be such that it minimised the risk of fire and ensured safe evacuation in case of emergency. However, she said Armadale was an "old great house" and those measures were not in place. She added that only if a new dorm was built could those precautions be put in place.

"Not enough changes could take place because of the type of building,"

Spence-Jarrett said she was involved in setting policies affecting the detention of juveniles, and these should be in accordance with the various international agreements, as well as local standards.

Spence-Jarrett said she kept abreast of what was happening at the different institutions through reports from her senior managers.

Pails for toilets

However, she said she was never aware that girls were using pails in place of toilets for extended periods of time.

According to Spence-Jarrett, there was a door to the dormitory that should have allowed access to bathrooms.

The commissioner said personnel working in juvenile centres should be trained to carry out their responsibilities but could not say if Faydene Ferreira, acting assistant superintendent at Armadale, had received formal training.

In her testimony to the enquiry last month, Ferreira said she had received no formal training to take on the new responsibilities that were given to her at the St Ann institution.

Spence-Jarrett's testimony at the National Volunteer Centre on Camp Road in St Andrew continues on Monday.

kimesha.walters@gleanerjm.com