President David Granger on Wednes-day said that he is actively looking at ways to have some of the female juveniles offenders being held at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) on the Essequibo coast reunited with their families.
He recently returned from a visit to the facility where he said he met sad children, one of whom was weeping.
Speaking to reporters at State House, Granger said that he is concerned that more than 80% of girls there were committed for wandering. He said that one girl who has a baby was weeping because she wants to get home.
According to Granger he has since initiated a process of reuniting persons with their families. “As far as I am concerned girls should not be treated as criminals and I am looking to see how quickly some of them could be released”, he said.
With regards to the conditions at the institution, Granger said that when he met the students he asked the staff to leave and as such they had an opportunity to speak freely to him. He said that some of the children complained about detention but there was no complaints about maltreatment or the conditions under which they were being kept. “Many of them wanted to get home and I want them to get home”, he stressed.
As part of the Ministry of Education, Department of Youth’s efforts to professionalise the NOC, a Juvenile Justice Officer from the United States late last year spent three months doing a rapid assessment of the facility.
Over the years, there have been complaints of abuse, a number of escapes and a major fire.
