On Tuesday, we reported that a ten-year-old boy was taken to the Springlands Police Station by his neighbours last Saturday and an allegation made that he had stolen something from them. The police at that station took a decision to place him in a cell in the lockups and to hold him there until Monday morning, when they took him to court to charge him.
The mother of the child told this newspaper that when she went to the station after learning of the whereabouts of her child, and questioned the police about whether her son was not too young to be placed in a cell, she was told that it was “procedure.” Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud has since directed the Police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter. Added to which Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh had already advised the police and the child’s mother on Monday, that he was too young to be prosecuted.
There are several things wrong with regard to this incident. To begin with, the child was arrested by neighbours and taken to the police rather than to his mother, who claimed that she was at home at the time. This suggests poor neighbourly relations and a breakdown at the level of the community.
Whatever the Police OPR turns up in its investigation, the child’s legal rights were clearly violated. The fact that he was already in the lockups before his mother knew he had been arrested, reveals that he would have been questioned by the police without his parent or an advocate being present. If he was not questioned, then the police would have accepted the neighbour’s allegation unconditionally. However, even if he were caught red-handed, he should be entitled to due process, which in his case would have involved having his parent present during the taking of a statement from him.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time a child has been placed in the police lockups in what is clearly a departure from Standard Operating Procedure. Last year June, a 13-year-old girl was held in the lockups at the Bartica Police Station for close to a week. She was arrested because she had run away from home with a 20-year-old man, who had kept her at his home for about a month, during which time, he had raped her repeatedly. She was arrested at the man’s home, locked up overnight and charged with wandering the next day. However, when she appeared in court, the magistrate ordered the intervention of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA). The child was then returned to the lockups and kept there for another four days, until the ministries of Public Security and Social Protection intervened.
The man was also arrested, but was released on station bail. It is not known whether he was ever charged.
At the time, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had told this newspaper that learning about the child’s incarceration had caused him tremendous consternation. He had pointed to the need for more education for police officers, noting that while it was wrong to hold a young child in a police lockup that has no provision for juveniles, in that particular case there was need for a different approach.
Though this case was widely publicized, the very next month, July 2015, a 15-year-old girl was arrested and held at the Whim Police Station for over a week. In this case, the child had become involved in a physical altercation between her pregnant older sister and vendors who sold outside their home. After reports were made to the police, all parties were charged. However, there was no consideration by the police for the fact that one of the accused was a minor girl.
It was only after the child’s mother approached the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) that she was removed from the lockups and transported to the juvenile holding facility at Sophia, which is a nightmarish institution that is in desperate need of revamping. The PCA had promised an investigation, but whether it was held and what the results and recommendations were are not known.
One would have imagined though, following Minister Ramjattan’s promise in June last year, that at the very least, there would have been communication to all police officers in all divisions reminding them of the processes to be undertaken when dealing with children. It is disappointing to consider that this has not occurred; worse yet to imagine that officers may have ignored such an edict. Whichever it is, this needs to be addressed urgently.
Spending time in prison or jail can have profound effects on a young person’s future. Numerous studies done all over the world have pointed to the fact that high rates of recidivism mean that they are likely to spend significant portions of their lives locked up. Given this negative outcome, it is important to try as much as possible not to lock children up in the first place.
