Child Offenders to Benefit from Challengers’ Camp

More than 250 child offenders are to benefit from a five-day Challengers’ camp, aimed at enabling them to make better life choices.

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) will stage the camp, which is in its tenth year and targets child offenders between 14 and 17 years of age.

It will last from August 10 to 14 across 11 parishes under the theme: ‘The Change begins with me’.

“The staff of the Probation Aftercare Services arm of the Department of Correctional Services and other stakeholders continue to demonstrate dedication and commitment to the rehabilitation and empowerment of disenfranchised youth and we are delighted to coordinate the activities of this camp,” Director for Probation Aftercare Services at the DCS, Janet Davey, told JIS News in an interview.

She said it is very challenging to reach today’s deviant youth and there are no easy remedies, especially when the Department is confronted daily with heightened levels of oppression, deprivation, guilt, anger and a sense of hopelessness.

“This mammoth task therefore requires intervention strategies that possess some level of creativity, vibrancy and allow for an intuitive use of self.  It is with this recognition that Challengers’ Camp was established and continues to receive overwhelming support,” Ms. Davey added.

The initiative was the brainchild of former Senior Probation Aftercare Officer, Victor Allen, and was conceptualized as a residential camp for male probationers between 14 and 16 years of age.

This year’s camp will address issues such as self esteem and self worth; substance use and misuse; anger management and conflict resolution; healthy interpersonal relationships; human sexuality; career development and skills training; spiritual management and motivation; and anger management.

One of the main objectives of the camp is to divert youngsters from criminal behaviours.

Ms. Davey recounted an experience last year when child offenders expressed in a focus group, that they would never do anything contrary to law again, following a visit to an adult facility.

“The camp has been going for ten years and it has evolved. We are hoping that if it cannot change all the lives of the youngsters, we at least want to positively impact some of them and to prevent them from entering the adult facilities. So, our emphasis is on behaviour modification and the camp is one of our avenues to achieve that,” the Director told JIS News.

Ms. Davey noted that the DCS will partner with the Adult Correctional Centre at Fort Augusta, National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) and the Victim Services Unit to put on the camp.

“The aim is to strengthen our efforts as it relates to the work that is done with our child offenders. Challengers’ Camp also helps us to focus on the relevance of the community based sentencing options, which are alternatives to incarceration,” she explained.