Manual offers help for kids in custody

- Contributed

Ambassador Marjorie Taylor, special envoy for children, left, Deputy Public Defender Cory Mills, and Chairman of the Juvenile Advisory Council, Rosemary Neale-Irving, scan a copy of the "A-Z Manual for Children remanded in Custody", during last Thursday's launch of the booklet at the Alhambra Inn in Kingston.

Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter

TEARS dripping down his face, the little boy takes the telephone from the policeman and brings it to his ear.

"Hello...Mama?"

His mother's reassuring voice answers while the policeman watches with a smile.

A few pages later, there is a different picture - one which outlines the terror of two boys crouching in a corner in small jail cell, terrified of two bulky men who are glaring at them.

The second scenario is what the Child Support Unit (CSU) in the Ministry of Health is trying to prevent.

Last Thursday, it launched a new manual aimed at ensuring that children receive the right kind of help and are not detained with adults if they are brought before the law.

The manual, entitled The A-Z Manual for Children Remanded in Custody, outlines the correct steps to be followed when children are brought before the law or are required to be remanded in custody for any period.

Among the booklet's instructions is that if a child is taken to a police station, the child should not be kept in the lock up.

The police should explore whether or not the child can be placed with family members or guardians first, then they can contact a place of safety.

It also advises police officers that in some cases where children are charged with criminal offences, the police should investigate the family situation with a view to offering bail. But if no one is willing to stand surety for the juvenile, he or she should be sent to a place of safety.

Police personnel are urged also, to contact the Children's Services Area Officer or the 24-hour emergency hotline if there is difficulty in securing placement, especially in rural areas.

"All too often, our children have been unnecessarily endangered and their rights violated, simply because of a lack of information on the part of adults involved in the law enforcement and judicial process," outlined Special Envoy for Children, Ambassador Marjorie Taylor, in the document's introductory pages.

"This manual is designed to provide a vital link between all agencies involved in protecting our children and so to ensure that the rights of children are upheld when they are in need of help and in trouble with the law or both."

Limit

While children can be charged for criminal offences once they reach 12 years old, the Child Support Unit, through its actions, made it clear that it wants to limit the type of cases which garnered international attention in 1994 and 1999 when reports from international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, stated that children were frequently held in police custody in the same cells as adults accused of serious crimes.

Many children were also said to be sexually and physically abused and often denied adequate food, medical care, education and access to basic sanitary facilities.

Prepared by the Juvenile Advisory Council and produced by the CSU, the manual is illustrated and outlines procedures for processing children remanded in custody, deemed to be in need of care and protection.

The manual also contains contact information on members of all agencies responsible for and involved in protecting or influencing children, including Grammy winning entertainer, Moses "Beenie Man" Davis, the police, the Children Services Division, Juvenile Correctional Institutions, probation offices, private children's homes and places of safety.

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