jamaica national disgrace

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The Youth Minister Lisa Hanna is facing more pressure following another incident involving wards of the State being held at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston.

Just over a month, after a teenage girl committed suicide at the facility, the Department of Correctional Services has confirmed that three wards on Saturday took an overdose of antidepressants.

The Opposition Spokesperson on Youth Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange said the fact that it happened in a State facility is one more reason for Lisa Hanna to be fired.

The executive director of Jamaicans For Justice, Dr Carolyn Gomes, said the situation is unacceptable.

Contacted last night, Hanna was reserved in her comments, saying she has only received preliminary information.

However, Hanna said she is concerned about the incident.

She also noted that the issue falls under the national security ministry.

Efforts to contact the National Security Minister Peter Bunting were not successful as his phone rang without an answer.

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furst inn november vanessa wint commited suicide wild inn da custody aff jamaica goverment house at an adult facilitee. mii still a wait fe de affical report. imagine a sixteen year old gurl woo ran away fram ar oome cah itt allegeded dat shi was beinn repeatelee raped ann ar rapist wass threateninn fi murder ar parent iff shi open ar mout. so de state allegedlee put ar inn dem custodee inn an adult facilitee ann shi committed suicide. mii wandarinn iff yuh put teenage gurls inn adult facilitee iff yuh nah subject dem to more rapes ann abused ann iff dat de reason y vanessa wint cammitted suicide.

now three more gurl inn de same facilitee tried fe commit suicide bye ova dosinn pon anti-depressant. wat reallee a gawn inn deer? itt show oww likkle jamaica care bout itt children. itt a shame wen yuh ear yung jamaicans ladies chatt bout dem fear aff being rape. itt wurst wen sum chatt bout beinn actuallee beinn raped.

diss iss a national disgrace jamaica ann de sad ting iss dat jamaica guv ann dose inn charge ave no shame

fiyah ann more fiyah affi bunn

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Children behind bars

HEART TO HEART

Betty Ann Blaine


"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believes in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6)

Dear Reader,

The reported suicide of 16-year-old Vanessa Wint two weeks ago while an inmate at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre has once again opened the door for a national discourse about juveniles in detention. Regrettably, those conversations seem only to find space - and only temporarily - when there is a tragedy like this most recent case involving a teenage girl.

It is a moral disgrace - if nothing else - to have children (those under 18 years of age under law), locked up behind bars in adult correctional facilities, and the Jamaican state must be held fully accountable for continuing this blatant and abhorrent practice.

It is important for the state to be reminded that it is the parent of those children placed in its care and protection, and that it ought to be the best example there is of good parenting. To a large degree, the government's treatment of wards of the state determines how children are to be treated in the wider society. There should be no tolerance whatsoever of state abuse of our children.

Let me make myself absolutely clear about the state/parent role. The fact that the state is the parent of those children in its care does not in any way exonerate biological parents from their natural role and responsibilities. Actually, that role and relationship with the state should be complementary and not one that encourages parental negligence and irresponsibility.

Parents are not only the natural nurturers and caregivers for their children; they are the first line of defence when it comes to the protection of their children.

The role of the state within the broad parenting framework should ideally be minimal and should ideally be supervisory and regulatory, ensuring that the "best interests of the child" are always protected. It is not natural, nor is it desirable, that the state in any society should serve the multiple roles of nurturer, caregiver and homemaker in the lives of children.

But we are not living in an ideal world, and so in countries like Jamaica with deep and pervasive structural and systemic inequities, much greater input is required from the state to support children and families.

While a few tepid and half-hearted measures have been made over time to improve the condition of children in the care and protection of the state, successive administrations have been guilty of gross dereliction of duty. This latest case of a teenager committing suicide while detained in an adult correctional facility is a continuation of a long list of tragedies and abuses that have taken place in government-run institutions, and it should no longer be tolerated.

There is one thing that I am very clear about. Any government that is unable to care adequately for a stipulated number of children in its care and protection (and in our case this number approximately 2700) cannot claim to have the capacity to run a country. As far as I am concerned, the true litmus test is not whether somebody can juggle figures to pass an IMF test. The real test is the ability of a government to provide properly for a relatively small number of children under its direct portfolio.

I don't care how you cut or carve it. The death of a 16-year-old confined in Horizon Adult Remand Centre is an unmitigated indictment against the state, regardless of whatever those external shortcomings in the child's life and background might have been. The very fact that children are housed in adult penal institutions is in and of itself a crime against humanity, and to simply attempt to reclassify the status of adult institutions on paper cannot suffice.

Some of us thought that the Armadale tragedy in which seven teenage girls perished in a fiery inferno "under lock and key" in a state-run home would have shamed those who govern into doing better. That has not happened, not even in the midst of the unrelenting advocacy of rights groups like Jamaicans for Justice and Hear The Children's Cry.

Yet the litany of deaths has been steady:

* December 2005 - Homestead Place of Safety; 13-year-old Kenna Forrest reportedly committed suicide at the facility.

* April 2005 - Glenhope Place of Safety; two-year-old Nathan Burton died after suffocating in his own vomit.

* May 2006 - Glenhope Place of Safety; two-year--old Joel Wong died at hospital taking prescription pills out of medication cart at the facility.

* October 2006 - Bethlehem Children's Home ; 11-year-old Greg Madorie allegedly died of a seizure, but there are still questions surrounding his death.

* December 2006 - SOS Children's Village, Stony Hill; two children, Abigail Lee, four years old, and Antoinette Cranston five years old, died of smoke inhalation when fire gutted their dorm.

* May 2009 - Armadale Juvenile Facility; seven girls perished in a fire, padlocked behind a grill.

* June 2009 - SOS Children's Village, Stony Hill; 10-year-old Brandon Saddler died after being stabbed in the chest by an 11-year-old boy also residing at the facility.

* November 2012 - Horizon Adult Remand Centre; 16-year-old Vanessa Wint reportedly committed suicide.

Let's call this record for what it is - a disgrace!

With love,

[email protected]

[RichD]

where dem get the anti depressants?

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where dem get the anti depressants?

dat de typa jugs dem give fe dope dem upp soo itt easier fe cantrol dem. raddar dan deal widd dem issues dem a use drug so dem doan affii address de underlieinn issues. nobadee nuh ask dem fe de studee fe prove anti-depressant success rate inn treatinn yuths diagnosed as depressed. oww manee aff dem yuths inn jamaica guv ar diagnosed as depressed ann given anti-depressant cah itt might be medical malpractice

again itt a national disgrace oww de government aff jamaica a devalue jamaican yuths

[RichD]

dat de typa jugs dem give fe dope dem upp soo itt easier fe cantrol dem. raddar dan deal widd dem issues dem a use drug so dem doan affii address de underlieinn issues. nobadee nuh ask dem fe de studee fe prove anti-depressant success rate inn treatinn yuths diagnosed as depressed. oww manee aff dem yuths inn jamaica guv ar diagnosed as depressed ann given anti-depressant cah itt might be medical malpractice

again itt a national disgrace oww de government aff jamaica a devalue jamaican yuths

i suprised to hear dat dem actively diagnosing dem and even if dem wrong actually trying to treat dem. back in the day dem would jus restrain dem ..it much cheaper dan drugs

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i suprised to hear dat dem actively diagnosing dem and even if dem wrong actually trying to treat dem. back in the day dem would jus restrain dem ..it much cheaper dan drugs

dem cyaan juss restrain dem nowadays cah dat wood cause a bigg uproar ann qwestians bout jamaica respect fe de rite aff children unda un treatees. drugginn children iss more sociallee accepted dan restraininn dem yuths even iff de medical diagnosis iss wrang ann deer iss no real proof dat de anti-depressant pill wukk.

imagine iff dem gave anti-depressant pill to de gurl woo allegedlee wass beinn rape raddar dan askinn ar y shi depressed? tekk a pill ann itt will cure de sypmtoms raddar dan address de real issue.

wat dem speculatinn iss dat maybe sum aff dem gurls might ave reggurgeeetate dem anti depessants jugs. affii wandar oww manee pill dem tekk fe od ann go to da hospital. diss to mii iss a cry fe hellp cah tings a gawn inna de adult facilitee nuh rite.

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Wards to be put in psychiatric care


Minister of National Security Peter Bunting has revealed that the three girls from the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston who reportedly took an overdose of antidepressants, are to be transferred to the University Hospital of the West Indies under the care of psychiatrist Dr Wendel Abel.

The girls were hospitalised on Saturday after what has been described as a suicide attempt. Bunting said the move to transfer the three girls is part of efforts to prevent a repeat of such an incident.

Saturday's report comes more than a month after 16-year-old Vanessa Wint committed suicide at the same facility.

Bunting said arrangements would also be made to provide psychiatric care for other wards of the state who have psychological and/or severe behavioural problems.

"Where the issue seems to be a psychological one, sometimes it's depression also accompanied by violent behaviour, then wherever feasible we would look to have their primary treatment undertaken by the health ministry rather than for them to be sent to the correctional system," he said.

The minister noted that while wards receive medical treatment in the correctional system, it is not the "round-the-clock" attention that the psychiatric department would give.

Bunting also added that it has become a challenge for the Correctional Services to deal with wards and even adults with serious mental problems as an in-house psychiatrist is not always available.

Against that background he said arrangements were being made to have persons in that category placed under the observation of a full-time psychiatrist.

Bunting said the South Camp Road Rehabilitation Centre to which juveniles found to be in conflict with the law are to be sent, is expected to be completed later this year.

"We're shooting for as early in 2013 as possible. We are hoping to get an allocation in a supplementary budget so that we won't have to wait for the new budget, but we are definitely hoping to get it done in the first half of 2013."

Human-rights lobbyists and advocates for youth have long been calling for children to be removed from lock-ups where adults are also housed.

no choice

However, Bunting added that his ministry does not have a choice but to take children when they are sent to the Department of Correctional Services.

In the meantime, Bunting said he hopes the court system will look at alternatives to divert young people from the Correctional Services.

He stated that "the Correctional Service should be a last resort for any of our children, apart from those who are violent criminal offenders who have to be restrained or separated for the safety of the general population."

He said he believed those children who display uncontrollable behaviour and those in need of counselling and medication should not be sent to the Correctional Services.

[email protected]

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