Trace Study to Evaluate Impact of Child Diversion Programme

The Ministry of Justice will be developing a trace study during the upcoming 2024/25 financial year to determine the true impact of the Child Diversion Programme on children who have successfully completed the intervention.

“It is to see if they are still maintaining the things that they have learned in the programme,” said Director of the Chid Diversion Branch, Venisa Clarke, in a recent interview with JIS News.

“A lot of our children and our parents don’t want to be reminded about that past, so they are just happy that they completed it and want to move along. But for us to be able to track and to understand what is going on, we are planning our trace [study] in the next financial year,” she said.

Implemented in March 2020, the Child Diversion Programme is aimed at steering youngsters in conflict with the law away from the criminal justice system.

It targets children ages 12 to 17 years, providing them with the individualised diversion programmes tailored to their needs.

After completing the programme, participants are required to fill out an evaluation form indicating how the experience was for them as well as how it can be improved.

The Child Diversion Act (2018) sets out that a child who has successfully completed the programme should not reoffend within three years.

So far, 1,183 intervention programmes have been established, with 50 per cent of cases successfully completed.

Ms. Clarke told JIS News that the success of the intervention is measured by observing the changes in the children, through testimonials from parents and others who interact with them and seeing the youngsters on a path to achieving their dreams and goals that would have been impeded if they had a criminal record.

“The anecdotal stories that you hear from parents that tell you ‘Thank you so much for helping me because you helped to give me back the child that I had’.

“Those stories warm your heart when you look at those children and you see them achieving their goals just because they came to the Child Diversion Programme. That, in and of itself, shows that the programme is successful and the children can attest to it and their families can attest it,” Ms. Clarke noted.

Further information on the Child Diversion Programme is available on the Ministry of Justice’s website at moj.gov.jm or by calling 888 JUSTICE (888-587-8423).