GIS ex-board member agrees with reintegration of boys, girls

A recent decision by the government to reintegrate the boys and girls juvenile reform institutions is welcomed by outspoken women’s advocate Marsha Hinds who describes it as a beginning and not an end.

Hinds, a former board member of the Government Industrial School (GIS) was responding to an announcement made on Tuesday in the House of Assembly by Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs Wilfred Abrahams that the female section of that facility located at Barrow’s in St Lucy would be relocated to Dodds Prison in St Philip.

Abrahams said the decision to return to the St Philip facility 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, UNICEF and other stakeholders.

The decision came months after allegations of abuse and mistreatment emerged at the Barrows institution.

“The reintegration is a step in the right direction, but it is a beginning not an end,” said the former President of the National Organisation of Women (NOW).

Hinds told Barbados TODAY on Wednesday that the decision to relocate the girls to the facility at Dodds was one of the recommendations contained in a report which she had completed for the minister after “we had completed a surprise visit to the institution on November 13, 2020”.

She added: “The condition of the recommendation was that GIS should be restaffed with a cadre of people specially-trained to oversee the institution in line with international best practice.”

Hinds suggested that there are “significant elements” of behaviour among the current staff at the institution which leaves much to be desired.

“Moving the girls and not addressing that issue will concentrate the problems in one facility. In terms of any signals the public may be picking up from the move, during my time of investigating the GIS, there were allegations by former wards of abuse,” the women’s advocate declared.

The former GIS board member believes the safeguard for the juvenile rehabilitation school has to be in ensuring there are competent staff, unaffected by the “toxic” institutional culture of GIS.

She continued: “That will ensure that the girls are safe from all types of predatory behaviour, regardless of who the potential perpetrator is.”

Hinds said it made no financial sense to have two of the same institutions at opposite ends of the island with two industrial kitchens and two sets of upkeep.

“It is one of the worst administrative decisions I have ever seen.  The cost-saving to the Government of collapsing the two units should be used to expand rehabilitation services to clients of the GIS.  Additional social work and psychological services should be made available not just to the immediate clients of the school, but also the families to which they will return.”

“Additionally, both the boys and girls of the institution should be given equal opportunity to programming.  I hope the move is the end of boys being allowed to pursue training in husbandry and landscaping, but girls not being afforded the same opportunity. Likewise, the boys should now be learning cookery and how to sew their loose buttons,” the controversial women’s voice contended.

Hinds said the focus on a relationship for medical purposes should be for service sharing between Dodds Prison, Six Roads Polyclinic and the GIS not the QEH.   

According to her, St. Philip is no closer during a medical emergency than St. Lucy. She said what St. Philip has that St. Lucy does not is a 24-hour medical staff accustomed to working in a secure facility.

“That to my mind is the sensible share.  The Six Roads Polyclinic has also been burdened by the housing expansion in the area, but without a significant upgrade to facilities.  Perhaps that upgrade can now be considered with further justification of the facility being the provider to the GIS for non-emergency secondary and tertiary care,” she stated.

However, Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley has raised concerns about the relocation of the girls to the prison, saying this could be sending the “wrong message.”

Abrahams gave no indication of the likely date for the relocation. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb