Delroy Chuck ONCE AGAIN, another report from the Sadie Keating Committee depicts the atrocities, abuses and indignities occurring in our state institutions.
This time, as if we should not have known before, our children, in so-called places of safety, are shown to be the victims of neglect, poor treatment and unpardonable criminal conduct. Yet, the children's homes are symptoms and examples of what is happening in Jamaica when things fall apart and no one is at fault or is responsible when things go wrong. Is there much difference in the old people's homes, the jails and prisons, the hospitals and many of our schools?
The Keating Report is a well-prepared, well-documented and comprehensive treatment of problems in our children's homes and places of safety. It provides enough recommendations, a total of 46 listed in Appendix 1, to improve and provide the needed care, welfare and supervision for our abandoned, troubled and wayward children. Most of the recommendations, if implemented, would correct and prevent recurring problems. Regrettably, I rather doubt these recommendations will see the light of day, as quite frankly, the authorities have no sense of shame, otherwise many would have tendered their resignation already. In fact, if the authorities had any sense of shame, they would certainly not have allowed these children's homes and places of safety to become places of brutality and disgrace.
NOT THE SYSTEM'S FAULT
In truth, it is not the fault of the system or the legislative framework but in the management and supervision provided. How the licensing authorities continue to issue licences and accept children in these homes and places of safety without any checks and balances, any monitoring or supervision, shows our sense of indiffe-rence and callousness.
Section 66 of the Juvenile Act sensibly provides: "At all reasonable times (a) Any person authorised by the Minister; or (b) The Chief Medical Officer or any person authorised by him or (c) An officer of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, not below the rank of Assistant Superintendent, may visit and inspect any home for the purpose of verifying that the home is licensed and of ensuring that the home is properly administered and that the children are receiving care and attention therein."
If only Section 66 was given some meaning and substance there would certainly be no need for a Keating Report or for the many problems now identified. In fact, one of the recommendations of the Keating Committee is exactly what the Juvenile Act contemplates, that is for an oversight function, performed by a Board of Visitors, to monitor and supervise these state institutions. It doesn't take money or the intelligence of a rocket scientist to set up a Board of Visitors to report regularly on these children's homes and places of safety, yet why has this not been done and how long will it take for this simple suggestion to be implemented. Indeed, do we need another committee to investigate and report before we have similar Board of Visitors monitoring our old people's homes, jails and prisons, mental institutions, etc.?
INABILITY OR FAILURE?
Still, we must wonder why are the state institutions failing so abysmally? The delivery of service, provision of good governance and the care and welfare of our people are at an all-time low and the fault lies in leadership and the inability or failure to act promptly and forthrightly. Jamaicans for Justice, Families Against State Terrorism, Transparency International, the Farquharson Institute and other agencies that speak out against injustice, corruption and governmental wrongs would be redundant if the state institutions were doing their jobs. The Offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Public Defender, Police Public Complaints Authority, Bureau of Special Investigation, and Professional Responsibility exist to curb police misconduct, corruption and injustice but which one is doing a job worthy of its name?
THINGS FALL APART
Everybody knows that things have fallen apart at the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions but no one wants to call a spade a spade, so the approach is to spend more money, waste more time, appoint well-paid mediators to cajole everybody to work together. Imagine educated, intelligent and well-trained lawyers, ministers of justice in their own right, must now subject themselves to mediators, to what end? To assist the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to more effectively carry out his constitutional duties? If the DPP is at fault then remove him! If the other prosecutors are recalcitrant and ineffective then transfer them! Why do we find it so difficult to identify who is at fault, pass judgement and make the necessary decisions to correct glaring and festering problems? Is it any wonder that problems, injustices and wrongdoings multiply and escape detection and correction, and undoubtedly explain why the society is rotting at every level.
We can continue our mealy-mouthed approach to problems talk, set up committees, recommend, mediate, ameliorate and hope the problems will go away but until forthright action is taken, I strongly suggest, nothing worthwhile will happen. To be sure, the Keating Report could easily be duplicated for virtually every state institution, and the one underlying thread is the lack of accountability by anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at Delchuck@hotmail
