‘Juvie’ Justice Act And supporting regulations Slated for review

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE JUVENILE JUSTICE PROGRAMME WITH
RESPONSIBILITY FOR POLICY ANDRE GONSALVES IS CALLING FOR REVIEWS
TO THE LAWS and supporting regulations to keep the sector in step with global trends.
Gonsalves in a recent interview told www.aroundtheregions.com since its enactment some three
years ago the programme was virtually ignored. He said it was strangled financially with no
annual budgetary allocations for its programmes from the government.
“The neglect occurred from updating other legislation and also from money. It is only this (2021)
budget that we got money to really start doing work. We got nothing (before),” Gonsalves
declared.
He said since 2018 when the Programme was established by parliamentary edict, they only
received monies to pay staff. Currently, the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Chambers is updating the
Restorative Justice Bill to help buttress the sector.
“This year is really when we got money to go ahead and do work, and…this government is also
looking at the other pieces of legislation that need to accompany the Juvenile Justice Act. We
talk about the Restorative Justice Bill that is supposed to return to Parliament after the AG
finishes his review. They are wrapping it up now. Even the Juvenile Justice Act from what I was
told is going back again for some amendments. We have issues now like we are talking about
non-financial needs,” Gonsalves explained.
“The Prisons Act is totally outdated and if you were to ever look at it you would think that we
are under colonial 1930’s era. I know that Professor Duke Pollard had reviewed the Prison Act.

In 2018 they had discussed changing the name to the Guyana Correctional Facility. I said it then
but here we are still talking the same thing now, but we got Minister (Robeson) Benn and he,
myself and some folks from the strategic management of the Prison Service reviewed it and we
highlighted the issues. He (Minister Benn) asked us to show him two issues that are critical and
he would send it to the AG’s Chambers for more detail analyses and amendments. We showed
him more than two issues and he has agreed. So, we are going to send him for review,” the
Deputy Director said.
Under the current Prisons Act, meals can be weaponised against inmates. Globally, this is a
contravention of a person’s human rights, requiring urgent amendments to ensure Guyana
conforms with modern human rights standards and the country is in a position to enjoy
unimpeded and unrestricted implementation of Juvenile Justice here.
“So, under the current Prison Act you can use the denial of meals as a form of punishment and
yes, it is considered in several parts of the world as an infraction on one’s human rights. So, it’s
important for those regulations to be reviewed to come in line with (universal) Human Rights
standards and to help the Juvenile Justice Act to be implemented effectively. The Prison Act still
views an adult in the prison system from 16 years old. It still looks at it that way and this has to
be changed to 18 years old,” to stay in line with changes in Guyana.
Minister Benn is anxious for these changes to be made ASAP, Gonsalves said.
“I am very sad to say that it is not new issues, there are issues that we have been raising
throughout since 2018 but only now somebody said ‘let me listen to what you have to say
and we agree with you and we are going to change this thing’. I am (still) very optimistic. I
know a lot of the programmes we plan will take off and we will promote some of these
things that we are doing,” the Deputy Director added.