Grange recommends South Camp facility to house juveniles

The opposition spokesperson on youth, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, is recommending the government uses the South Camp Road Rehabilitation Centre to temporarily house juveniles.

Grange is making the recommendation in light of the reported suicide of Vanessa Wint at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre.

Wint's relatives and human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice have questioned why she was being housed at an adult facility.

Today, Grange said Vanessa’s death brings into sharp focus what she calls the reprehensible practice of housing children, especially girls, in adult correctional institutions.

Earlier this year, the Commissioner of Corrections, Lieutenant Colonel Sean Prendergast said 96 female juveniles will be housed at the South Camp Road Rehabilitation Centre, which is to be retrofitted into a home for Jamaica’s female prisoners.

A number of groups have said this would be the same as housing children with adults.

In the meantime, Grange says she hopes that whenever the Ministers of National Security and Youth break their silence on this issue, they will reveal definitive actions that are to be taken to remove children from police lock-ups.

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