The holding of a 13-year-old girl in the police lock-ups for close to a week after she ran away with an adult male has once again raised the issue of there being a more educated police force and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan said that he will work to ensure that this is the last case of minors being placed in adult lockups.
Had there been a more educated force, he said, then ranks at the Bartica Police Station would have known that it is wrong to hold a young child in a police lockups that has no provision for juveniles.
“If we had good police officers at Bartica, understanding the nature of the problem, they could have done a better job of it; rather than shoving her inside of a lockups and then charging her,” Ramjattan told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview.
He said cases such as these cause him “tremendous consternation.”
“As minister I would try my best to see her released, but I would want to know from the police… on the ground why it is that there could not have been a different approach or a different option taken in a matter like this,” he said.
But what is more troubling for Minister Ramjattan and his colleagues in the Ministry of Social Protection—Volda Lawrence and Simona Broomes—is that the child was raped repeatedly by an adult man from whose home she was removed. And while she was charged with wandering, the man was placed on $10,000 station bail. He said he regarded the fact that the child was held in custody as further abuse.
The child went missing from her home since May 9 and while her mother was aware that she was with the 20-year-old man, she wanted the assistance of the police to remove her. Her mother had told this newspaper that she had repeatedly attempted to keep her daughter away from the man but he persisted and at one time the child threatened to commit suicide if she was not allowed to be with the man.
On May 9, the mother left the child at home with her siblings and on her return later that day, she was told that the man had removed the child from the home.
It was last Monday evening that the police visited the man’s home, but instead of the child being handed over to her mother or to the care of the state, she was kept in the Bartica lockups before being taken to court on Tuesday.
There, the presiding magistrate ordered the intervention of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) before making a pronouncement and the child was returned to the lockups and kept there until Friday when the Ministries of Public Security and Social Protection intervened.
The case mirrors that of another two years ago when three teenage girls who had run away from a private institution in Berbice were picked up by the police and kept in custody at the police station for close to a month. They were subsequently charged with wandering
‘Amount of work’
Speaking to this newspaper, Minister Lawrence indicated that the child’s case shows the amount of work the government and especially her ministry has to do.
She pointed out that the procedure as it relates to children being held in custody is well known and the fact that no one at the Bartica Police Station saw it fit to make contact with the CC&PA is troubling.
“This speaks volumes and for the police just to use the wandering charge especially in light of the fact that the child was abused shows that work not only has to be done for victims but also with those who are supposed to help victims,” the minister said.
She confirmed that the child has been removed from the lockups and that she has not been sent to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC).
“We have a lot of work to do. I am going to depend on the media. The fact that a resident didn’t even call the ministry to alert us to this issue is also troubling. Where is that caring side of us?” the minister questioned.
Her junior colleague Minister Broomes was also contacted on the case and she also made it clear that the child should not have been in police custody.
“You didn’t pick up this child on the road and even if you had picked up this child on the road you get the Child Care and Protection Agency involved and investigate. You don’t just place a child in the lockups at 13 years old,” the minister said.
She noted that it took “years to charge a man who is accused of rape” but the force is swift to charge a juvenile and this is a practice of the force that needs to be stopped. She commended the magistrate’s decision to have the CC&PA involved before considering sending the child to the NOC that was reportedly being suggested.
Broomes said she was told by the police that the child protection officer for the area was not in Bartica but noted that in that case contact should have been made with officials in Georgetown.
Spoken out
Meantime, Minister Ramjattan noted that President David Granger has spoken out against young people being held in the lockups and that is why even some who have been convicted are being released. He was referring to the presidential pardons granted to 60 young men and women on the country’s 49th Independence anniversary.
Ramjattan said the administration is contemplating looking at other options outside of criminal law as it relates to young persons. He is also considering the shifting of the age of mischievous discretion “meaning that age where you can commit an offence to one that is 14 and above.
So the minute you are less than 14, you can’t commit any offence, you can’t be arrested for any offence.”
The minister added that in the Juvenile Justice bill he is going to make a strong case to ensure that the age of discretion is increased to 14.
Aware of the furore such a suggestion might create, Ramjattan made it clear that this would not cover all offences such as robberies and murders and other serious offences.
“We have to put in caveats and all of that because there are 14 year olds who are smart enough to do all manner of things and you are going to get adults who are going to use them because they are young enough to do their bidding and they can come out with the immunities,” the minister stated.
He admitted that there are going to be “stronger arguments against me lifting it up so high” but he said it is cases like the instant one that would drive him to argue for the lifting of the age. “We have to work back and see international best practices in relation to what should be the age of discretion,” he said.
