Law Amended to End Locking Up Children Who Have Not Committed a Criminal Offence

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday (July 25), approved amendments to the Child Care and Protection (Amendment) Act, to bring an end to locking up children who have not committed a criminal offence but who have been deemed uncontrollable.

Amendment of the Act includes the repeal of Section 24 (2), which will enable Jamaica to become compliant with obligations under notable international treaties on child justice and child rights and establish a fairer and more equitable means of treating with cases involving children exhibiting behavioural challenges, thereby promoting the best interest of the child.

The legislation was passed with 17 amendments.

Closing the debate on the Bill, Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, said the Child and Family Support Unit of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) will be strengthened to complement the changes to the legislation and provide the necessary support to parents and children.

“With these amendments, we obviously have to move to increase the resources to the CPFSA, so that parents who come in to the CPFSA… don’t have to wait an inordinate amount of time to get the assessment,” she said.

The Minister explained that amendments have been made to allow for a parent or guardian who believes that the child is exhibiting behavioural challenges to first access support through the CPFSA, rather than bringing the child before the court.

“The CPFSA will have the child assessed by a competent behavioural specialist to determine whether the child is in fact exhibiting behavioural challenges and determine the support needed,” she noted.

“Where it is of the view that the child needs to access treatment in a residential environment, the matter will be placed before the court with a social inquiry report, a copy of the report of the behavioural specialist on the assessment, a care plan and the recommended duration of treatment, which should be a period not exceeding one year,” the Minister added.

She noted that where a child is being treated in a nonresidential setting and it has come to the CPFSA that the child is not receiving treatment in accordance with the care plan, the child will be brought before the court by the CPFSA for an order to be made, as the court considers fit, to resolve the matter in the best interest of the child.

“It is hoped that with these amendments we will see a decline in the number of children being treated in a residential environment, and treatment will begin immediately for those children when they are referred to the CPFSA,” the Minister said.

Mrs. Williams explained that the amendments will also seek to indicate the duties that the children’s officer will undertake where a child is placed under the supervision of the children’s officer, pursuant to the amendment to be made to Section 14 (2) of the Child Care and Protection Act.

She added, too, that the amendment also seeks to substitute the words “violent behaviour” with the words “behaviour that may cause harm to the child or another person” in the new Subsection 5 (a) of the Bill.

Also, under Clause 2 of the legislation, the definition for behavioural challenges will be removed.

In her contribution, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Hon. Marsha Smith, said the amendments protect the rights of a child.

She said they have been drafted taking into account the real-world situations confronting the courts, the Government agency with responsibility for children, the police, parents and guardians, and at the same time it is respectful to Jamaica’s treaty obligation as it relates to the rights of the child and the concerns of civil society.

Other contributors to the debate included Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding; Opposition Spokesperson on Labour & Social Security, Dr. Angela Brown Burke; Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton; Opposition Spokesperson on Gender, Culture and Social Transformation, Denise Daley, and Opposition Spokesperson on Transport and Works, Mikael Phillips.

The Memorandum of Objects and Reasons states that the amendments will provide for any child alleged to have behavioural challenges to be brought before a Children’s Court as being in need of care and protection and make provision for the orders that may be made by the Court in respect of such a child to include a residential therapeutic order or a non-residential therapeutic order, having regard to the results of a social enquiry report and a psychological or psychiatric report.

The legislation also provides that a Children’s Court before which any child is brought under Part I of the Act, other than a child alleged to have committed an offence, may order that the child be placed under the care of a children’s officer for a specified period not exceeding three years (instead of a probation and after-care officer as currently obtains under the Act).