For too long indifference has plagued our criminal justice system—we are criminalising substance abusers, not rehabilitating them; we are expanding our prisons, not reducing their populations; and we are dismantling gangs across the country, not rebuilding lives and communities.
The majority of our criminal perpetrators are below the age of 35, as disclosed earlier this week by Crime Chief Seelall Persaud. He confirmed what many of us already knew: our criminals are alarmingly young. We also know this: the criminals in our newspaper reports and on the nightly newscasts are youths; boys not yet old enough to vote but with criminal rap sheets; boys in their teens and early twenties who are turning to crime for different reasons but often share community connections and similar socio-economic statuses.
Just a few years ago, the image of a dishevelled 13-year-old identified only as “Nasty-man” at the time was featured in the local media. The child, a resident of Agricola, was charged along with