Controversial Move: Minor Transferred from Prison to New Beginnings Institution Amid Public Outcry

The minor who became a very important person of interest has been recently moved from the Wagner’s Facility at the Belize Central Prison and is now at the New Beginnings institution.  It is a move made after the public clamor and some NGOs who lobbied that a prison environment is nowhere for a minor to be placed.  Police Commissioner Chester Williams is not in full agreement of that concept, as he has firsthand knowledge of the criminal acts that have been carried out and against this particular 13-year-old.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Well I have said that myself and my minister were in discussion to see what would have been the best option for the 13 year old whether or not he should remain in prison or taken somewhere else. I’m sure the matter went up to Cabinet so my minister will speak more about that. But again in terms of the 13 year old as I’ve said before we need to look at it from a more holistic perspective and not just look at it from the standpoint of him being a 13 year old. The fact that he has been shot on 9th of March this year after 9pm at night one would then wonder what was a 13 year old doing on the street around 9 at night to have been shot and where were the parents ? There is still the curfew law that prohibits any child under the age of 16 to be out in public after 8pm absent any parent or guardian. So in that particular instance the mother could have been held accountable for what happened to the child. Subsequent to that we had two other reports of the child being involved in gun play going after people with the intent to shoot them and so there was sufficient for us to have been able to take him under the SOE and I still believe it was the right thing to do. The child is being charged today for threat of death and aggravated assault. He’ll be going before the courts, I am hoping that the court is going to make some decision in terms of making sure that the child remains somewhere that is going to help the child to develop to become a better person as opposed to releasing the child back into the care of the mother where he might be more dangerous to him than anything else.”

According to the Police Commissioner, it is his hope that the minor would remain in custody for the next five years as opposed to being released to the mother who is fighting the system.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “When we look at this whole situation the child is now at the New Beginning. I believe that sending him there is a good thing but we have to look at it more broadly. What else can be done ? The mother is fighting for the child to be released but does she have the capacity to care for that child ? If you look at the history the child’s father was a street figure he was killed. The child’s stepfather is a street figure, the mother is absent. So if the child is released back to her how can she act in the best interest of that child as stated by the Families and Children’s Act, I don’t think she has the capacity. If it is that something can be done where the child can be taken in as a wad of the state and kept at New Beginning until he attains the age of 18 I think that would be the best thing for that child in this particular instance because at New Beginning he’ll be able to get the mentorship that he needs, the guidance that he needs to be able to transform him and become a productive young person. If he’s let back on the streets in the hands of the mother we might report of him being killed or him killing somebody. So as a society we need to look at it holistically and not just try to demonize the system for what was being done. In addition to that Channel 7 reported that it was a failure of law enforcement. It’s not a failure of law enforcement. We are not the ones who are raisin these children it’s a failure of parenthood and again whilst there may be instances where you can say that the child acts out even though the parents are doing what they can to raise that child the right way we will cannot blame law enforcement because when parenting fails and the child offends then the child ends up in the hands of the police. The police will have to do what needs to be done and sometime what the police will do may not be what the public wants to see the police do but we are law enforcement officers we have to do what the law says that we must.”

Police Minister, Kareem Musa, has also weighed in on the issue.  He has indicated to the media that the criminal world is now seeing young men used to carry out crimes.  As it relates to this particular minor, his life was at risk which is why he was whisked away to the Wagner’s Facility.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “It is just a very sad state of affairs that we have the adults from the gangs now trying to program or use very young children, tender ages, 12, 13, 14 to commit these very heinous crimes. But like I was saying all of the environments have their risks and advantages. I can tell you that from the intelligence the police has the minor was faced with a very strong likelihood of losing his own life if he were to be left out and if he was not picked up. And while at Wagner’s Youth Facility he was in protective custody as were the other minors; I believe there were eight total two of them under the age of 16 the others I believe are 17, seven of them. And so having them in protective custody in the first instance was important because when you put him automatically at New Beginnings you’re not taking into consideration the best interest of the children who are at New Beginnings because we’re dealing here with an individual who it is alleged is dangerous and so you have to look at whether he’s a danger to himself, whether he’s a danger to others and so it is in conjunction with the Ministry of Human Development and UNICEF that we took a visit my self, Ms.Allison Parker from UNICEF, the CEO from the Ministry of Human Development and Home Affairs visited the Wagner’s Youth Facility and had an opportunity to speak with these young men.”