LOCKED UP BUT NOT LOCKED OUT

Law-breaking youths may be locked up, but Director of the Juvenile Justice Programme, Mr
Orin William Boston is on a quest to ensure they are not locked out of accredited training
programmes to make them useful citizens in preparation for reintegration into society.
As an initial step, Boston wants the courses offered at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) at
Onderneeming, on the Essequibo, accredited by the local National Accreditation Council (NAC).
The NOC offers a number of learning programmes for the juvenile law-breakers but
unfortunately, “lacking among these programmes has been their certification, (and) it’s
practically useless as the youths are unable to effectively market themselves owing to the lack of
accreditation of the programmes,” Boston observed.
He noted that since Guyana has its own accreditation agency it should not be that difficult to
certify the programmes offered to the young offenders.
Certified and accredited programmes will further help empower the youths, Boston said, “so that
they can better market themselves and have untold possibilities…as a means of garnering or
securing new jobs.”
Boston anticipates partnering with the accreditation body to help achieve the vision of the
Juvenile Justice Programme which is shaped by research findings on attitudes of Guyanese
juveniles.
“The 40 year study has shown that the youths want the money right away, unfortunately they are
not prepared to work or wait upon it. We got to meet to the point where persons can see its (the
NOC-offered courses) marketability as we are effectively marketing not only the knowledge
gained but are determination and interest of some in securing it,” Boston argued.
The status of programmes offered to incarcerated youths is not only a challenge for Guyanese
decision-makers but also global leaders. A US-based 2015 study, ‘Improving Educational and
Vocational Outcomes for Incarcerated Youth’ concluded: “Most incarcerated youth do not have access
to the same educational and vocational services as their peers in the community, and they do not attend

schools that have the same rigorous curriculum and student performance standards as traditional public
schools”.
Highlighting systemic weaknesses, researchers found too that most of the 50 States “do not collect, track,
and report student outcome data for incarcerated youth in all facility schools.” As a consequence,
“policies and practices employed in most states make it especially challenging for youth released from
incarceration to make an effective transition to community-based educational or vocational settings,”
researchers concluded.
Recognising that they can and will play a more meaningful role together, a number of agencies
will be tapped into as the Juvenile Justice programme seeks to move ahead aggressively. This is
according to the Director of the Juvenile Justice Programme, Orin Williams who said that the
primary focus now would be to construct closed facilities takin into account that the current
facilities that are available are being referred to as open facilities. He said that the Ministry of
Legal Affairs are also working in what are described as holistically do as to further enhanced the
delivery of the Juvenile Justice Programme.
He declared that his department’s success would rest on their ability to properly network with
various agencies and individuals noting that this is pivotally important so as to forge
collaborative initiatives.
Boston is convinced there is a glorious future for the NOC if their plans for accreditation and
certification fructify. In addition, there is sufficient real estate for infrastructural expansion to
house various categories of juvenile offenders to satisfy the new programme.
“There is a lot of land space at NOC and I believe that we can temporary convert some of those
space into a closed facility, since as it is now, it is a closed facility but it is now being referred to
as an open facility. So I think that with the space being there we can make a makeshift closed
facility to cater, while we look at a precise model,” Boston said.
He is excited by the prospects of inter-ministerial collaboration to help push the novelty in the
juvenile sector too.

“The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education even the Ministry of Legal Affairs can do
work more holistically even in legislative reforms and that we can buy into to,” the Director
stressed.

“We can use whatever is currently available so as to achieve our objectives,” including
fraternising with the private sector, Boston said. He said the department will be exploring ways
to secure insurance for the reformed former offenders, declaring that in providing second
chances they must be prepared to provide the required guarantee to various stakeholders.
“We don’t want to have a situation whereby we send someone to a particular business place and
then the person recognises that this person has had a coloured or a shady past and then wonders
what guarantees they have. So with the provision of insurance it would help to guarantee and or
remove any lingering fears from the minds of various persons,” Director Boston said realistically
assessing their challenges.
He further noted that the department will be seeking to get the buy-in from the Private Sector
Commission (PSC) with whom the Juvenile Justice Programme anticipates a long lasting and
most fruitful relationship.
“This…will ensure it’s a win-win situation for all those involved.”
“I can tell you that some of these youths don’t even know why in the first place they did what
they did and that is why I firmly believe that it is a responsibility, a public responsibility, that we
bring the public to understand that even Jesus Christ forgave,” he declared.
Boston commenced talks with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in a bid to deepen the force’s role
in the Juvenile sector.
“When you look at what the police force represents, a lot of time many of the officers are
intertwined between what is a request and what is a statute. A lot of time they go with the
Standing Orders and one of the things that we are seeking to do is to look at what the Standing
Orders say, relevant to certain categories of arrests. We are aware that in the system though we
haven’t gotten hold of it as yet, there was a review of the Standing Orders done by Professor
Duke Pollard, we know that but we have to get the document to see what was really said,” he
noted.
“When you look at the Guyana Police Force, they are sections, they have the Canine, they have
the Traffic, and they have the CID. So perhaps we are approaching a time where we should look

at the police and say let’s have Juvenile Justice Department with not just one Officer but like
how you have traffic ranks we should have ranks for the Juvenile Department.
“We are not suggesting to eliminate anyone, but is to get the ground staff going so we may have
to push for a cadre of trained and re-trained personnel and see where the grey areas are and
establish a juvenile section in each police station to allow for first contact in that body.”
“We will need a trainer of trainers and eventually an evolution to say this is something to
go with,” Director Boston envisions.

Mr. Boston have accumulated over 17 years of senior management work experience having
previously served as a Director of Administration, USAID/GHARP; Administrative
Management Specialist, USAID, Consultant to Unicef and World Wildlife in the areas of
organizational development and personnel respectively; Chief Executive Officer, Rights of the
Child Commission(RCC) and Assistant General Manager, Operations, National Insurance
Scheme.
Notably, Mr. Boston was the first appointed CEO of the RCC and successfully managed the
startup of the Commission Secretariat and its programmes implementation and ensured
achievement of deliverables, and is therefore familiar with the current demands necessary to
fulfill the mandate of the Juvenile Justice Department.