Female students at troubled GIS Barrows ‘to be housed at HMP Dodds

Of that total, $1,735,891 is for the GIS, and the remainder is for overtime payment to prison workers who had to work extra time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for a period of 14 days when their colleagues had to be quarantined due to a coronavirus outbreak at the prison.

Abrahams said the decision to relocate the girls to the prison was taken after a “surprise visit” to the location to do an assessment and wide consultation with the Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, the United Nations children’s organisation, UNICEF, and other figures. It was not immediately known if UNICEF had sanctioned the decision.

Recalling the latest incident of alleged injustices that occurred in March of this year involving a 14-year-old girl at the GIS, the Home Affairs Minister said for too long “the can has been kicked down the road” on addressing concerns at the northern branch of the GIS.

Defending the decision to move the girls, Abrahams said “the facility is not adequate”. He also pointed to the need for the children to be in a location that was more accessible by ambulance if any of them had to be taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Abrahams told the House: “There was no immediate facility closer that was conducive, that was purpose-built or even suitable that we could immediately relocate and continue operations as it was.

“So in all of our looking around it was deemed that the easiest thing to do for now was to retrofit the boys’ facility at Dodds. There are a number of dorms there, there is sufficient dormitory space where we can house the girls, there is sufficient plant that it can be separated, it is sufficient that we can do separate classrooms and integrate certain things such as classes.”

Insisting there was a “holistic” examination and analysis of the St Lucy facility and the laws governing the juvenile penal system, the minister said: “One of the things that came out of all our examination was that Barrows was not suitable and to continue there would be to disadvantage the residents who we have a duty to take care of.

“Part of that was an examination of Barrows itself – the structure, the education component, the curriculum, what staff is necessary to give the proper care and exactly who should be going into that system, what are the alternatives to the system, what do we do if we change to the juvenile justice legislation when that does come in… it was a holistic examination.

Abrahams promised that the findings of the research will be presented to the public “at some point in time”, adding that it will help to inform “a lot of what we are going to see going forward”.

He said the boys’ school had dormitory space to accommodate 30 people but only five are there currently, while there are “three or four” girls at the Barrows location.

“So the best use of space would be to redesign, reappoint and renovate Dodds to accommodate both the boys and the girls while we fine-tune what we are doing going forward and look at a purpose-built facility for more serious offenders going forward,” said Abrahams.

“What about the enhancement to the training programme? It is not just a penal institution . . . If there is to be any discipline with reference to staff who were seriously at fault for recent happenings at Barrows I think that those are matters to be seriously and urgently addressed so you avoid repeats down in the south.”

Abrahams gave no indication of the likely date for the move. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb