The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A TEEN court programme, approved by the Christie administration to divert at-risk teens from the formal justice system, has gone nowhere under the Minnis administration, frustrating the project's organisers.

Hundreds of teen court programmes exist in the United States where they have become a popular intervention for young and usually first-time offenders.

The programmes are designed to help juveniles who have been arrested and have admitted guilt for their crime. Under the programmes, juveniles could choose to be sentenced by a jury of their peers instead of through the formal criminal justice system.

The teen court pilot programme, a flagship proposal for Project Youth Justice, a legal aid organisation for youth in conflict with the law, drew initial support from the Christie administration.

In 2016, then-Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson said her office would put a representative on the programme's board of directors and help establish the system for reviewing and referring cases for the pilot programme.

Under the new administration, however, the project's future is unclear.

Last week, Attorney General Carl Bethel, when asked about the matter, said: "Because I have not seen their actual proposal I am unable to judge whether it is acceptable and even if acceptable, whether it is feasible."

He claimed the first he heard of the matter was when contacted by The Tribune.

The organisers' concerns were expressed after reports that the Department of Rehabilitative/Welfare services recommended that Chimeka Gibbs, the former College of The Bahamas employee convicted of stealing more than $600,000, not be imprisoned.

"Project Youth Justice (PYJ) is encouraged by the Department of Rehabilitative/Welfare Services highlighting the value of rehabilitation and reform, especially the usefulness of alternative punishments, in the case of former College of The Bahamas employee Chimeka Gibbs," PYJ said in a press release.

"However, we remain disappointed that, even today, many juveniles are not afforded the same opportunities for a second chance, often in far less serious circumstances. In fact, courts have a statutory obligation to consider what is in the 'best interest of the child' in all matters concerning a child. There is no such statutory duty for a court or the Department of Rehabilitative/Welfare Services to consider what is in the best interest of an adult, although that consideration appears to be applied more favourably towards adults than children.

"For over a year, a plan for an alternative, community-focused, restorative justice programme focused on young people - the Juvenile Diversion Programme - has sat in the bowels of the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Legal Affairs without progress. Simultaneously, $3.3m of funding for improved rehabilitation, part of a failing $20m citizen security loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, has sat virtually unused for two years, as the Bahamian people accrue interest they will soon be made to pay. All the while, research conducted by the University of The Bahamas, and even used for policy-making in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank, shows that our correctional facilities act as mere preparatory schools for more extreme criminality.

"In the end, what will cost us more than the government and IDB's faltering loan programme is the social and economic expense of repairing the young people the correctional system has failed to save.

"Project Youth Justice calls on all the relevant government agencies, and the multilateral banks and organisations that support these agencies, to take seriously the need for rehabilitative and restorative justice, and alternative sentencing, in cases involving young people. We call on the Office of the Attorney General to partner with us, and all other relevant agencies, on the Juvenile Diversion Programme, so that we can give our young people the fighting chance they deserve. Finally, we ask the Bahamian public to take action on behalf of young people and speak to their representatives, to encourage them to support legislation and programmes for juveniles that rely more on rehabilitation than on punishment."