A number of children who have completed the Ministry of Justice’s Child Diversion Programme are facing “significant barriers reintegrating into their schools” due to stigma tied to their original offence. These offences include sexual activity under 16 and assault, rights advocate Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) says.

According to the JFJ, which highlighted the finding in its most recent report titled ‘A Civil Society Review of the Diversion and Alternative Measures for Children in Conflict with the Law in Jamaica’, released on Monday, this stigma, reported by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), “leads to social exclusion, with peers or schools labelling children as delinquents”.

It said further reintegration challenges and post-programme issues are often due to non-behavioural issues, including parental disengagement and administrative delays in issuing completion certificates, which hinder school re-enrolment.

According to the rights watchdog, “These challenges undermine the programme’s goal of rehabilitation, as children struggle to resume education and rebuild community ties.

“Reintegration challenges, particularly stigma hindering school re-entry, further complicate post-programme outcomes. The lack of reoffending data underscores the need for robust monitoring to assess long-term impacts,” the JFJ observed.

Jamaica’s Child Diversion Act (2018) provides a progressive framework for diverting young offenders from the formal criminal justice system, providing alternative interventions. Operational since January 2020 under the Child Diversion Act, the programme aims to reduce child incarceration, promote rehabilitation, and address underlying issues.

The JFJ said to address the barriers identified, the MoJ’s call for more mentors must be met through partnerships with approved non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that can provide community-based mentorship and counselling, helping medium-to high-risk children overcome stigma and family challenges.

The JFJ further called for “greater inter-ministerial effort on child diversion between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Youth, to include the training of school administrators to ensure that children are reintegrated into school without negative labelling or administrative difficulty.

In the meantime, the JFJ has raised concern about the number of children who fail to complete the programme, mainly due to non-compliance.

According to the JFJ, review of the 1,517 referrals made since the start of the programme in 2020 to January 2024 showed that 690 children (547 males, 143 females) successfully completed the programme, representing a 45 per cent completion rate.

It said the number of children returned to referral sites now stands at 203 (149 males and 54 females). According to the JFJ, the average rate of returned or failed to complete cases is 13 per cent.

The JFJ said reasons cited for non-compliance or non-completion with the programme include inability to contact or locate the child, court withdrawal of cases, parent non-compliance or lack of support, administrative delays in programme approval, school commitments, and exam schedules.

And the JFJ has in the meantime spotlighted police and school resource officers who are critical to diversion for showing “inadequate awareness of the Child Diversion Act”, with only 48 per cent familiar with its provisions.

“Many rely on informal cautioning rather than referring children to the programme, which offers greater rehabilitative benefits. Comprehensive training, including regular sessions on referral processes, is essential to ensure duty bearers apply diversion as a first resort, particularly for school resource officers who interact with children daily,” the rights group said.

It, in the meanwhile, flagged the programme as “holding significant promise as a mechanism for addressing juvenile delinquency and reducing recidivism rates”, but said the identified challenges, such as the absence of comprehensive data and evaluation reports as well as the shortage of qualified mental health professionals and social workers, must be resolved.

Data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force indicates that children aged 12-17 were implicated in 875 major crimes from 2018 to 2021. For the three-year period of 2022-2024, 710 children were arrested for crimes including murder, shooting incidents, rape, and aggravated assault, as well as frequent offences like grievous sexual assault.

From 2022 to 2024, 17 children were arrested for murder, 93 for rape, 131 for assault occasioning bodily harm, 42 for possession of a prohibited weapon (ammunition), 20 for possession of a prohibited weapon, four for illegal possession of ammunition, and five for illegal possession of a firearm. Additionally, 107 children faced charges for grievous sexual assault, 121 for sexual intercourse with a person under 16, and 43 for indecent assault. Sexual offences accounted for more than half of the 730 felonies committed.