A LEGAL bid to overhaul the laws surrounding the use of the Island’s secure unit for young people has been launched by the children’s commissioner.
Deborah McMillan believes that the government is infringing the rights of children and young people by remanding too many minors in ‘secure accommodation’, even for less serious offences.
And she has taken the Home Affairs Minister to court in an effort to allow ‘non-secure accommodation’ to be utilised, in places such as residential homes or with foster carers, for young people accused of crimes who are not released on bail.
She said foster care and residential homes were the best alternatives for minor offenders but that those options ‘aren’t available’ in Jersey.
But the government argues that no change is necessary because existing laws do abide by human rights rules – and that only a handful of youngsters are sent to secure accommodation in any case.
At a court hearing yesterday Advocate Darry Robinson, representing the office of the children’s commissioner, outlined how children and young people accused of the most serious offences were always remanded to secure accommodation, normally at Greenfields Secure Care Unit.
He said: ‘They would be for murders or serious assaults, cases where only a custodial sentence would be adequate, to protect the public from serious harm or where the totality of crimes is so serious that a non-custodial sentence cannot be considered.’
Other, much more minor, alleged offenders are released on bail. But he said there was a middle group who were not properly catered for.
He said: ‘When a Centenier refuses bail or bail cannot be granted, secure accommodation is the only answer. The Centenier’s hands are tied.
‘There is no option for a child who is refused bail to be allowed non-secure accommodation. That is not akin to the case in Guernsey or the UK. In England and Wales local authorities have a duty to accommodate that child. They are only placed in secure accommodation if they pose a serious risk of harm – and the test in England and Wales for serious harm is high.’
He added: ‘There could be circumstances where it may be preferable to place a child in a children’s home with the door shut if necessary, but Centeniers don’t have the power to do that.
‘That is the problem with the law. The Jersey law is not human rights-compliant.’
However Attorney General Mark Temple, representing the government, disputed that.
He said: ‘We are not in the territory of not being able to give a convention-compliant reading of the law,’ adding that the number of cases was low and did not reflect the full picture. ‘It does not indicate the children who were released completely, the children who were released on unconditional bail and the children released on conditional bail. ‘There are only a handful of cases where a child has been remanded to secure accommodation.’
He also said: ‘Centeniers are routinely bailing people to reside at certain addresses, in non-secure accommodation.’
The case had to be adjourned yesterday afternoon after Mr Temple was suddenly taken ill. It is expected to resume next month.
