By Gina P.Morley

If your son is a minor, a person under the age of 18-years-old, and has been arrested and sent to Her Majesty's Prison, Fox Hill, I advise that you immediately secure the services of an attorney. However, if you are unable to do so and have also been unsuccessful in obtaining legal aid, then read on.

Your child, the minor, should have had a parent or guardian present during any police interview, "before" he is charged with any offence.

Secondly, the arresting officers should have ascertained that your child, the minor or accused or defendant, is a juvenile, meaning that he was under the age of 18 on his last birthday, before he was arrested.

Thirdly, what offence has he been charged with?

Is he charged by himself, or with other minors or a mixture of minors and adults?

This point is important because when analysing the application of juvenile justice laws, there is a further definition which separates juveniles into "children" and "young persons," the former, being usually defined as "a person under the age of fourteen years," and the latter, as "a person under the age of sixteen years." Such distinction enables the state to apply different disciplinary measures to the two groups, the young person being subject to harsher treatment, regardless of the nature of the offence.

Therefore, young persons who commit offences like truancy, wandering, immoral conduct and refusal to obey parents and guardians, are housed in the same institutions as young persons found guilty of serious infractions of the penal law. In the Bahamas, there is a Penal Code that sets out the offences and penalties.

Children, who commit the previous named offences like truancy, usually end up in the Girls or Boys Industrial School, where it is hoped or anticipated that they would be 'rehabilitated.'

Such rehabilitation is not guaranteed, as once they have served their time, they remain stigmatised and exposed to perhaps more nefarious behaviours.

Parents, please note, that the power given to parents to bring before the court, children whom they complain of being uncontrollable, is derived from The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 of the UK. Since 1963, this provision was repealed in England, but it remains a feature of our juvenile justice laws. For example, in Belize, children whom parents consider uncontrollable, are diverted from the Court by the Probation Unit to the Family Counselling Programme of the Family Services Division.

Age of Criminal Responsibility: According to United Nations Children's Fund, "a prerequisite for a child being subjected to the penal provisions of the justice system is that such child must be of the age of criminal responsibility. A child under the age of criminal responsibility is conclusively presumed innocent and may not be charged with a crime under any circumstances. Such a child is deemed doli incapax, which means incapable of crime. There is a further presumption of innocence in a child who has attained the age of criminal responsibility but is under 14. This presumption, however, is not conclusive and may be rebutted by affirmative evidence that when the child did the action complained of, the child knew that he/she was doing something gravely wrong."

Gina P Morley is an Attorney-at-Law and advocate for women and children's (human) rights, and the founding editor of the All Woman magazine published in the Jamaica Observer.