Ahead of the expected activation of the landmark Juvenile Justice Act in the coming days, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards disclosed on Friday that a specialised Children’s Court will be up and running “in a matter of weeks” at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Courts.
The Chancellor made the disclosure while addressing those gathered at the Pegasus Hotel for the 14th University of Guyana-organised Turkeyen and Tain Talks, which was held under the theme “A Better Life for Youth: Juvenile Justice in Guyana.”
Justice Cummings-Edwards stated that two magistrates have already been identified and exposed to training, both locally and abroad, for the specialised court. She did not name the magistrates.
However, she said that their training came against the backdrop of study tours done by magistrates and judges to juvenile institutions located abroad, inclusive of the United States, Jamaica and Trinidad. The judicial officers, she added, were able to compare and contrast and take away the best practices rather than “reinvent the wheel.”
According to the Chancellor, the judiciary has pulled all the stops, with Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George leading the way, to ensure that the court is child-friendly. Justice George has been working closely with the contractors. “The colours are different, so we no longer have the dull colours of the courtroom. It is bright. I believe she (Chief Justice) mentioned purple and pink and green and orange and brown, so those are the colours you would be seeing,” the Chancellor said.
Later, a member of the audience expressed concern at the location of the court and asked whether it would be removed from the public setting. In response, Justice Cummings-Edwards indicated that the new site is a temporary arrangement, before explaining that in the long term the judiciary intends to have a modern court complex where all the specialised courts will be housed.
The new court has been established where the Traffic Court was previously held. Another section which will house a playroom, a probation officers’ office and a conference room.
Phased implementation of reforms
Meanwhile, the forum heard that the Juvenile Justice Act, which provides for major reforms in the handling of juveniles in the justice system, is not in force as yet although it was assented to in June by President David Granger. The bill was unanimously passed in April by the National Assembly.
In explaining why the commencement order has not yet been published in the Official Gazette to operationalise the law, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, who was also present at the event on Friday, said government decided that before the law is brought into force, there must be a costing done to determine how much money is needed to make it operational. He would later disclosed that UNICEF pegged the cost at $590 million to $600 million. He added that because of the humongous sum and the fact the government wants to establish facilities for children, there will have to be a phased programme of implementation.
Ramjattan noted that like with every other Act, certain facilities have to be in place. Additionally, in this case a Director of Juvenile Justice is to be appointed, a juvenile justice committee is to be established and magistrates have to be trained. He said that the training of the magistrates was expected to take three to four months.
He noted that he had already sent a draft commencement order to the Attorney General’s Chambers, anticipating the identification and training of the magistrates and establishment of the court. He did not say when the draft was prepared and sent off. “You certainly will have the commencement order within a couple of days… in the Official Gazette,” he said.
The bill, which was introduced to the House on March 15th this year, seeks to “amend and consolidate the law in relation to criminal justice for juveniles; to make provision for proceedings with respect to juvenile offenders; to provide for the establishment of facilities for the custody, education and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders; and to repeal the Juvenile Offenders Act and the Training Schools Act.”
Earlier, Ramjattan had indicated that with whatever money is available, government will ensure that “we have some temporary facilities, so instead of putting those (juveniles) in lock-ups at the police station and all these arrangements that are very harsh and conditions [that] are extraordinarily appalling sometimes, we have to ensure that our young people move from that kind of scenario. It is very, very important.”
He said that it is also important that we ensure our children, “although they might have committed wrong, do not become graduates. When they are sent to prison or the police lock-ups, what we have found is that they teach lots more wickedness and mischief there and so we have to avoid that. So the further away we keep them from that setting the better.”
Wandering charges persist
Ramjattan said that he has given instructions to the police to not charge children with offences such as wandering. When told this this is still happening, he said that he will have that situation rectified.
Justice Cummings-Edwards provided a breakdown of the cases brought in the various magisterial districts since the passage of the Act for offences such as wandering, vagrancy and truancy. According to her, there were 30 such cases in Georgetown; 20 in the Corentyne; 29 in East Berbice; four in West Berbice; 16 in West Demerara; six in East Demerara; 18 in the Essequibo Coast and Islands; nine in the Upper Demerara; and 11 in the Rupununi. She earlier explained that the Act gives a more wholistic approach in the treatment of children who are in contact with the law, including diverting them away from the formal judicial process. “The court seems to be a last resort, given the context and the theme of the Act,” she said, while explaining that now before the children are brought to court there are a variety of diversion measures, including warnings and referrals to agencies when an infraction of the law occurs. The court will only be utilised as a last resort or in serious cases, she said.
The Chancellor added that senior police officers—those above the rank of sergeant, as stipulated by the Act—will be working closely with the judiciary.
