The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE new juvenile detention centre at the Bahamas Department of Corrections has drawn praise from a leading juvenile rights expert and warnings about how the facility could impede progress for youth in conflict with the law.

Senior corrections and Cabinet officials joined National Security Minister Wayne Munroe to open the facility last week.

However, attorney Tavarrie Smith, who toured the facility with them, highlighted what he called several critical issues that should be addressed.

“The Bahamas has long been in breach of various local and international conventions mandating that we separate juveniles from adult inmates, no sight or sound contact,” Mr Smith said. “I recall representing a 16-year-old juvenile back in 2015 who was housed at the remand centre of BDOCS. The juvenile had appeared in court bleeding, with bruises on his face and blood on his shirt as he explained to the judge that he was attacked by an adult inmate on the prison bus. That was just one of the many horrific stories I have encountered over the past ten years, cases of juveniles being physically, sexually, and mentally assaulted by the adult inmates. To see that we have finally removed them from general population is a key achievement towards the advancement of human rights for children in conflict with the law.”

 Nonetheless, Mr Smith said the absence of security cameras at the facility is problematic and that cameras should be installed immediately for everyone’s safety.

 He similarly questioned whether fire services were consulted in the design of the building, saying smoke alarms, sprinklers and fire extinguishers were missing.

 He said the centre has an open floor concept and has “no ability to lockdown, cordon off or restrict access and movement.”

 “There appear to be no means whatsoever to isolate, restrain, or separate the residents should a brawl erupt, and let’s be pragmatic here, it is only a matter of time before someone steals a chip, insults someone’s mother, disrespects a gang affiliate, or snitches on another resident,” he said. “Do we really want our decent, hardworking prison officers running into an all-out brawl to separate the residents, knowing about the proliferation of ‘shanks’ in our prisons?”

 Mr Smith said provisions for personal storage appear inadequate, with property expected to be stored in plastic bin containers tucked under beds in open living quarters.

 “I have seen many juvenile residents appear before the juvenile court for fighting, which often was started because someone’s commissary, toiletries or garments were stolen,” he said.

Additionally, juveniles sentenced to prison, according to Mr Smith, should not be mixed with youth on remand.

 “We need to be clear and deliberate in our attempt to further separate persons on remand and persons who are serving a sentence as research as clearly showed juveniles remanded in custody experience worse conditions and more restricted regimes than those for sentenced offenders in young offender,” he said. “Mixing the two populations is a recipe for intimidation, bullying, developing criminal habits, and gang recruitment.”

 Asked about Mr Smith’s concerns, Mr Munroe said yesterday: “That’s the building that’s available. They can go or they can stay where they were.”

 Mr Munroe said prison officials designed the space to manage juveniles best.

 “The reality for any juvenile who wants to be disruptive is they can go back to where they were previously,” he said.

 “Prison officials are of the view that they know how to manage the juveniles in custody.”

 Mr Munroe said security cameras are more critical for evidence gathering purposes than security.

 “People paying attention to what’s happening keeps you safe,” he said. “Upstairs, they have people who can sit and watch the whole open plan. There’ll be correctional officers down on the floor. Security cameras do not keep you safe. They simply record evidence and when you have a lot of them, people tend to get lazy.”

 Nonetheless, he said CCTV may be installed eventually.