Young Convicts Need Programme in Cayman Islands |TODAY|

Submitted by dan. on 2007-08-28 20:26.
Offender Support | Public Education

It is welcoming news that some attention is given to the most vulnerable young people in the Cayman Islands. However, I must hasten to indicate that the allocation of $1million to construct a youth secure faculty is not in itself adequate in attending to the problem of youth crime.

The youth justice in the Cayman Islands will have to invest in more preventive work, targeting children who might be at risk of offending before actually appearing before youth court; by improving alternatives to sentencing by creating custodial orders that will take into account the circumstances of offending and targeting the behaviour rather than the young person; transforming the way in which young people are sent to prison and decreasing the amount of young people sent to prison by using the restorative justice conferencing and behaviour modification programmes.

Young offenders institutions’ overcrowding and inappropriate facilities create many difficulties in observance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juvenile Deprived of their Liberty.

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