Justice ministry officer calls for JPs to mentor children in diversion programme

Tiffany Case, a child diversion officer with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, is calling on justices of the peace to sign up as mentors for the National Child Diversion Programme, saying their involvement can help children who have run afoul of the law rebuild their lives.

Case, who is also a JP based in Clarendon, made the appeal to fellow justices of the peace as she pointed to the need for direct support for children who are considered vulnerable and in need of steady guidance.

"My favourite part of the Child Diversion Programme is the mentorship aspect. This is where I’m going to beg and plead with all our justices online to come on board and become a mentor," she said on Thursday during a Legal Aid Connection Forum staged by the ministry. The forum was held under the theme "Know the Law, Save a Child: Under-16 Sexual Offences and Bullying".

The programme is grounded in the Child Diversion Act of 2018. It offers an alternative route for children aged 12 to 17 by moving them away from the formal criminal justice process and into rehabilitative services that seek to deal with the issues behind offending behaviour.

Case said many of the children who are sent to the programme are dealing with problems that may include absence from school, drug use, emotional trauma, poor peer associations and weak or unsettled family support.

"We look at the psychosocial issues. Have they received any counselling? Have they been exposed to trauma? And how are we going to fill those gaps?" she said.

She said mentorship is an important part of the process because it gives children access to encouragement, direction and adults who can model better choices while they are enrolled in the programme.

"Mentorship helps our children. It gives them guidance, it gives them support while they’re on the programme," Case stressed.

Persons who volunteer as mentors under the initiative must first go through an approval process, including vetting and training, before they are matched with a child.

"You’ll get these children to interact with once you are approved, once you apply, once you’re vetted, once you’re trained, and this is of no cost to you," she told JPs.

Case said the programme is built around rehabilitation instead of punishment. She said it is intended to protect children’s future opportunities while limiting their contact with the criminal justice system.

"The goal of this programme is to develop and sustain a justice system in the best interest of the child. The best interest of the child is paramount in the administration of programmes, to secure their protection while maintaining the rule of law," she said.

Support offered through the programme includes getting children back into school, vocational training, counselling, community service, parenting support, substance abuse treatment, and sexual and reproductive health education.

Data shared during the forum showed that St Catherine has had the largest number of child diversion matters since the programme began in March 2020, with 364 cases. St James followed with 346 cases.

"So, we have a total of 951 coming from the police, but for intervention, we have a total of 903 that have been sent to child diversion," Case said.

She said the ministry is still strengthening the network of people available to support the programme and is looking to community leaders, particularly JPs, to assist in changing the path of at-risk children.

"If you are not a mentor and you are interested, I’m just going to ask you to reach out to us at the Ministry of Justice’s head office," she said.