Orville Taylor | Sociology of compulsory sentences and school closure

Both Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon and President of the Jamaican Bar Association (JAMBAR) Tenneshia Watkins sat in first-year sociology classes on the plantation longer ago than is apparent on their still-youthful faces. Standing beside her colleague, Tamika Harris, another who completed the short sentence in SY14G, they probably do not even recognise that they all are having the same conversations.

Fact is, society is a system, like the human body, and every part is connected to others. Unfortunately, the connections are often ignored.

To the list of former ‘inmates’ of those sociology classes, one can add the chief technical director of the Ministry of National Security and Peace, as well as the senior director and others in the Department of Correctional Services, who are driving what is, so far, a relatively successful programme designed to reduce recidivism, the return to criminal behaviour, that made ‘offender clients’ guests of the state facilities.

It is all connected.

Lawyers have a different way of describing reality; and what JAMBAR and the Advocates’ Association of Jamaica called a ‘silent’ protest was anything but. Neither were the arguments made in sign language, nor was King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie using a Cinderella reference, certainly an allusion to ugly stepsisters.

Apart from the clear misnomer of this being a silent protest, the lawyers are spot on. Dialogue is necessary, and some of the provisions of the Firearms Act need to be fixed. Already, babies have been flushed down the drain with the bath water because the judges’ only discretion in sentencing is that they can spell the word.

Imagine, 15 years for possessing a fake firearm. A young man, aged 18, given ‘orders’ to ‘lock’ a ‘strap’ in a tenement yard. He has only touched it once. His fingerprints are on it.

If he pleads guilty, he is gone for almost as long as he has been alive. How do you rehabilitate a relatively innocent youth who had no criminal intention in the first instance? No mens rea. It is a bloody mess.

Even without the body of behavioural research and data, it is simply a no-brainer that a person who is locked up for 15 years literally has no opportunity for rehabilitation. Prison will be nothing more than an academy for other pathologies.

Now, the logic behind severe sentences makes sense, and there is a body of knowledge behind it. Indeed, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck knows sociology and did teach part of the introductory course SY103, writing a compulsory publication, Should We Hang?, which was both insightful and inciteful for a man whose age was still on the calendar.

Sociological and criminological studies, such as Park and Doob in 1987, which tried to demarcate sentencing guidelines, ultimately had to yield to the discretion of judges. In spite of the clumsy and mischievous placing of Park and Chuck in the same sentence, I have to side with the attorneys because despite the similarity, arbiters should not be arbitrary.

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION

Moreover, with a justice system which was on an upward path in clearing up the backlog of cases, no accused is going to plead guilty if he has a louse whisker of a chance of acquittal, because 15 years is a lifetime. Furthermore, where an attorney is not confident that the evidence favours her client, why should she seek a speedy trial?

While I am super grateful that the lawyers and the minister are now in discussions, it has to be noted that Chuck observed a correlation between the steady reduction in gun murders and the statute.

Well, apart from both beginning with a ‘C’, causation is not necessarily correlation. Here are some sobering facts. Firstly, the police have been using multiple tools to make escape from criminality less likely. Secondly, a gunman, even a junior ‘shotter’, becomes more desperate, knowing that if caught, his life is over. Therefore, thirdly, he is far more likely to engage the superiorly trained boys and girls in blue. Has anyone noticed the spike in police killings?

But how does this relate to education? In previous columns, the connection was made between the education of boys past Grade 11 and the proclivity towards violent crimes and other anti-social behaviour.

With the elimination of schools and the merging of others now being actively considered, we could unwittingly be reducing the ability of boys to get beyond that grade. The path to post-CSEC performance is often well sealed by primary school teachers.

Further, an additional five kilometres might not seem much. However, given the terrain and all kinds of logistical challenges regarding dislocation, relocation can have a negative impact on attendance as well as learning outcomes.

And while it might not be a large number of students who may be thrown off path by the closing of the schools, it may just be the ‘wrong’ boy who is later unleashed on society.

Then, of course, there is the labour fallout. Quite rightly, President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, LaSonja Harrison, has raised the yellow flag.

Where schools cease operation, there will potentially be redundancies. Will all the teachers be properly redeployed or re-engaged?

Under our laws, a lower post with the same benefits and remuneration is not a suitable offer. Thus, a principal who is given a vice-principal position is not reasonably accommodated.

If the new school is more than 16 kilometres away, even in the same parish, the worker who rejects the offer is made redundant.

Teachers, bursars, administrative and support staff are also parents with their own children to send to school and supervise. Attending school in the ‘wrong’ milieu might just be the missing cog in the vulnerable boy’s mind.

Finally, there is a strong correlation between working conditions and the likelihood of criminality among male children.

It is all sociology.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.