LEGISLATORS on Tuesday grappled with the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) proposal to rehabilitate child murderers instead of sentencing them to the minimum 20-year period of imprisonment being proposed under the Child Care and Protection (Amendment) Act, 2023.

This suggestion clashes with the Government’s move to impose mandatory minimum sentences by amending associated laws to allow for harsher penalties for murder, ensuring that the penalty matches the severity of the crime.

UNICEF was making its submission at Tuesday’s meeting of the joint select committee appointed to review and report on the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Act, 2023; the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Act, 2023; and the Child Care and Protection (Amendment) Act, 2023.

Making reference to the Child Care and Protection (Amendment) Act, 2023, Representative of UNICEF Jamaica Olga Isaza expressed deep concern that the proposed amendment would require children convicted of murder to serve a mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

She argued that the evidence and knowledge accumulated by UNICEF affirm that the imposition of long periods of imprisonment for children does not contribute effectively to decreasing the rate of crime nor does it help to deter offending by children.

Minister of justice and chair of the committee Delroy Chuck said it cannot be ignored that Jamaica, in particular, has a serious problem with youth offenders who commit serious offences, particularly teenagers aged 15 to 17.

“They are really, in the Jamaican context, responsible for many, many serious crimes and… these are the persons who we wonder what can be done with them because, in many ways, they are now hardened criminals in many communities and are being used by gangs to carry out really serious crimes,” he said.

Child justice specialist with UNICEF, Shelley Casey argued that imposing a mandatory, non-parole provision, specifically on children, would be contrary to Jamaica’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and not in conformity with the spirit of the Child Care and Protection Act itself.

She said that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has been clear that imposing mandatory minimum sentences on children is incompatible with the core CRC principles of proportionality and use of imprisonment as a last resort for the shortest appropriate period, and instead it strongly urges that countries take a much more nuanced and discretionary approach when handling cases involving children.

“So rather than sort of inflexible mandatory minimums, judges should be given discretion to exercise their authority based on an individualised assessment of a child’s unique circumstances,” she said.

Casey further argued that the “quite a harsh sanctioning framework” Jamaica has used to date to try to crack down on children who commit more serious offences has not really been very effective,

“So, rather than doubling down and making the sanctions even harder, I think now’s a time to step back and look at other strategies, other approaches that will better deter youth crime — because we know there’s no evidence globally that harsh sanctions prevent or reduce youth crime.

However committee member, Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams said that while she supports UNICEF’s view in ensuring that children are not abused and neglected, the issue is that the Bill speaks to a child who would have committed murder, and is before the court, and is being sentenced “and we’re simply talking about how many years this child should serve before being considered for parole. Murder is a serious crime”.

“You’re saying: ‘Let’s assess, let’s intervene.’ Yes, but where should that child be while this is happening? Should that child be in society while this assessment is happening? Or should the child be in an institution and is also paying for the murder that was committed? We’re not talking about children who are innocent. We’re talking about children who commit the gravest of crimes, that of killing someone else,” she said.

Casey, in response, said UNICEF recognises that taking a life is the most serious act that a person can commit and there is no question that this in most countries would attract some period of imprisonment.

“But at some point if that child responds appropriately [to rehabilitation], at some point they become safe to return to the community — and in fact returning them sooner rather than later makes it more likely that they’re going to reintegrate successfully and break from their criminal past. Although these children have committed heinous acts there are successful programmes globally that will assist young people to rehabilitate to return to the community,” she said.

She suggested the introduction of cognitive behavioural therapy and multi-systemic family functioning therapy, which are used in the United States with very hardened, gang-involved young people and which have been proven to turn these young lives around.

“So rather than writing them off as hardened criminals who should be warehoused for 20 years plus, we need to leave scope for the possibility that these young people can be turned around with proper investments programmes and services that can assist them,” she said.

She said UNICEF wants the Government to reconsider the proposed mandatory minimum sentence for children convicted of murder and encourages it instead to maintain the current position, under the Child Care and Protection Act, which is giving judges discretion to consider the individual child and the circumstances, and to determine a sentence that is most appropriate for that individual child’s rehabilitation, and to ensure public safety.

“It also calls on the Government to continue to invest in a strong and differentiated child justice system, taking into account international standards and best practices with a focus on evidence-based violence prevention, restorative justice, and rehabilitation programmes; and then to invest in services for children and their families in order to address the root causes of crime,” she said.

However, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn said she has had to deal with child offenders who committed murder who have shown no remorse, and suggested that the mandatory minimum in respect of 20 years be left for children who have committed murder in the course of furtherance of one of the categories which would make them eligible to be tried for capital murder.

“We believe that it would be appropriate to have the minimum mandatory for murder committed by a child, in respect of capital murder categories,” she said.