After years of calls from both sides of the political divide and civil society groups, for the Child Care and Protection Act to be overhauled, the Government on Wednesday named a joint select committee of Parliament to review the Bill along with two other crucial pieces of legislation.

Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams had indicated in a statement to Parliament in July 2021 that the Bill was being actively reviewed to address new and emerging issues and to ensure harmonisation with other pieces of legislation concerning children.

“The process is advanced, as a draft Cabinet Submission has been developed to seek approval for the recommendations that were made in the report of the Joint Select Committee of the Houses of Parliament,” Williams said at the time.

That report was tabled in the House of Representatives in December, 2018 by Minister of Justice, Delroy Chuck.

Williams said the ministry sought to accelerate the pace of the revision of Section 24 of the Act by pulling out this section for advancement, ahead of the revision of the entire Act.

“Upon revision, no child not charged with an offence will end up in a penal institution. The use of the terms ‘uncontrollable’, ‘beyond control’ and ‘out of control’ will be abolished in describing children with behavioural issues, to be replaced by modern defined terminology to capture the range of behaviour exhibited by children,” she said at the time.

In February last year, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and its partners Stand Up For Jamaica and Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network had called on the Houses of Parliament to urgently amend the Child Care and Protection Act.

“The time has come for the Government to decisively put an end to the long history of State-sanctioned violence against children, which tends to disproportionately affect those from poor socio-economic backgrounds” the groups said in a statement.

The groups said that for years, they have vocalised concerns regarding the gaps in the legislation that allow for children, without crime, who are deemed “uncontrollable”, to be ‘jailed’ at juvenile correctional centres.

“For those with criminal convictions, the punitive measures, in most instances, are far too harsh and are not proportional to the offence committed, the child’s age, and the ability for reform. We maintain that the legislative provisions that facilitate these conditions are unconstitutional and must be repealed,” the groups said.

They suggested that legislators repeal provisions relating to children “beyond parental control”; remove the possibility of incarcerating children in adult institutions; and remove the possibility for imprisonment of children for life or excessively long periods.

Meanwhile, the other two Bills slated for review are the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Act and the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Act, which will serve to impose stricter penalties for murder,

Minister Chuck tabled the Bills in the House of Representatives in February this year. He had said then that the proposed amendments to the Child Care and Protection Act, are generally in line with the objective of these two Bills.

In his presentation while tabling the Bills simultaneously, Chuck explained that increased mandatory minimums for murder will provide greater alignment between the sentencing regimes governing serious crimes and the public’s expectations of the justice system.

“The possibility of the imposition of a more punitive sentence will go a long way in preserving the credibility of Jamaica’s justice system in the eyes of individuals traumatised by the untimely death of their loved ones,” the minister said then.

Turning to the specific proposals of the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Bill, Chuck said it seeks to amend Section 42(F) of the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act by increasing the term of years to be deemed as “life imprisonment” from 30 years to 50 years where the offence committed is murder.

“The starting point for calculating the reduction in the sentence is usually life imprisonment and the aim of this proposed amendment is to maintain an incentive scheme for defendants to plead guilty while ensuring that the reduced sentence is not inordinately low having regard to the serious nature of the offence,” he said.

Chuck said this is in tandem with this reasoning that it is also proposed that Section 42(E)(3) of the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act be amended to stipulate that the Court shall not impose a sentence that is less than a term of 30 years.

In terms of the Offences Against The Person (Amendment) Bill, it proposes that in Section 3(1)(b) the proposed amendment is to increase the mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment from 15 to 45 years.

In Section 3(1C), which deals with eligibility of parole for capital murder, the proposal is to increase the mandatory minimum sentence to be served before being eligible for parole from 20 years to 50 years.

Minister Chuck said for non-capital murder, where the sentence given is life imprisonment, the proposal is to increase the mandatory minimum sentence to be served before being eligible for parole from 15 years to 40 years.

He said where the sentence given was a term of years, it is proposed to increase the mandatory minimum sentence to be served before being eligible for parole from 10 to 35 years.

The committee members appointed from the Lower House comprise Justice Minister Delroy Chuck; Education and Youth Minister, Faval Williams; Opposition spokesperson on education and training, Dr Angela Brown-Burke; Government Members of Parliament, Kerensia Morrison, Donovan Williams and Tamika Davis; and Opposition MP Denise Daley. They will sit jointly with members to be selected from the Upper House.