Child Diversion Offering a Second Chance to Children

Since its implementation in March 2020, the Child Diversion Programme in the Ministry of Justice has been steering youngsters in conflict with the law away from the criminal justice system.

The initiative, which is in the Social Justice Division of the Ministry, targets children aged 12 to 17 years, providing them with individualised diversion programmes tailored to their needs.

Director of the Child Diversion Branch, Venisa Clarke tells JIS News the aim is to prevent children from having criminal records, going into adulthood, for mistakes they made at a young age.

“Say, for example, we had a child who stole from a shop in a community, and the shopkeeper found out about it, and it was reported. When they realised the child said, ‘I am sorry about doing that; I just wanted some food for myself and my siblings and so on and so forth’, that shopkeeper now has the option to, instead of criminalising this child for this minor offense, consent to the child going to the Child Diversion Programme,” Ms. Clarke explains.

She states that participation in the programme is completely voluntary and requires the consent of the victim of the offence to be utilised in keeping with the law, and to ensure fairness for the victim.

“The victim has a right to redress; however, in this situation, we offer the victim the option of this alternative-justice service. So, the victim consents to the child coming to the programme. The child accepts responsibility for the offence. This does not mean that you are saying I am guilty or innocent. What it means is that they are saying I am willing to be part of the programme,” the Director points out.

Given the nature of the programme, referrals are only made by the court or the police.

Ms. Clarke says the child is then sent to one of the 14 child diversion offices across the island, where a risk and needs assessment is done, so a personalised programme can be created for the child.

“The child and their parents or guardian come, and we ask them a lot of questions about who they are, what it’s like at school, what it’s like at home, do they get bored easily, have they experienced any traumatic things in life. All those questions we ask because we want to get an understanding of who the child is,” she informs.

Once the child is better understood in a wholistic way, rather than only by the offence they have or are accused of committing, the Child Diversion Programme then shifts to understanding the root cause of the offence.

“So, the example that I gave before with the child stealing, that child may have stolen something, but the root cause of the issue is probably poverty, or it’s probably poverty or some traumatic experience that the child has been through,” Ms. Clarke says.

She adds that the programme does not solely focus on the offence for which the child was referred; other issues will be addressed should they arise during the programme.

“We treat with family counselling and individual counselling if that is needed. We also provide, for example, sexual and reproductive health education through the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation, drug-abuse intervention through the National Council on Drug Abuse and we provide mentorship. So, we try to provide a circle of care for these children that focuses on the whole person and not just the offence that they committed,” she says.

A key part of the Child Diversion Programme is mentorship, where the children are given the opportunity to work with positive role models who can help guide them on a better path.

“As we know, children learn by mimicking, and we often find that some of the children coming to the programme do not have positive role models at home, so they might not have parents or if they live with parents, the parents are not contributing in a positive way to their development. What we try to do is to provide them with mentors from across Jamaica who are willing to serve, because it is voluntary,” Ms. Clarke notes.

The Child Diversion Branch is always looking for new mentors to add to the complement. Jamaicans over the age of 18 years who wish to apply to be mentors, may access the mentorship applications on the Ministry’s website, www.moj.gov.jm, or at any of the 14 parish offices.

“We will do the vetting, the background checks and all that to ensure that these people are suitable to interface with our children, and we conduct training for the mentors to help them to understand what the programme is about, the aim of the programme and what their role would be in terms of the rehabilitation of a child to ensure that we are not exposing our children to anything that would cause them more harm,” the Branch Director notes.

For more information on the Child Diversion Programme, persons may visit the Ministry of Justice’s website at moj.gov.jm or by calling 888 JUSTICE (888-587-8423).