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Young offenders get second chance
By Rehanna Ramsay
Teenagers and young adults in Guyana, who appear before the courts for minor offences, will now have a second chance at becoming productive citizens. They will be able to acquire alternative methods of sentencing via the USAID’s Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) project.
This initiative is part of the SKYE’s mandate to prevent or reduce the number of youth at-risk from being ‘held’, jailed, or incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice System through its Detention Prevention Strategy.
Representatives from the Inter-Agency Team on Juvenile Justice, USAID’s SKYE Project COP, Juvenile Justice Specialist, and Employment Coaches meet with youths diverted from incarceration on October 19, 2012.
Earlier this month, USAID’s SKYE Project and an Inter-Agency Team on Juvenile Justice met with the Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag.), the Chief Magistrate, and two other Magistrates to identify alternatives to sentencing at-risk youth to detention centres. These options include community services, technical vocational training, and other formal and non- formal education opportunities.
A request was made for USAID’s SKYE Project to receive youths between the ages 15 and 25 as beneficiaries, pair them with Employment Coaches, and assign local Probation Officers to each young person.
This comes as a result of months of dialogue with the Judiciary and the Chief Magistrate to abstract these youth from detention centers / prisons and give them another chance at becoming fruitful citizens to society.
Based on the advice of the Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag.), a taskforce comprising Magistrates and the Inter-Agency Team, was formed with the mandate of identifying and presenting alternative options to the Judiciary in the near future.
To support this effort, USAID is currently identifying alternatives by liaising with skills training and educational organizations, NGOs, and local Government bodies who will agree to host and supervise juveniles who qualify for alternative sentencing and to create a brochure detailing these sentencing options.
SKYE expands education, skill-building, and employment for at-risk youth in Guyana, with the goal of reducing youth crime and violence by strengthening economic participation and civic engagement.
The two-year project provides targeted alternative sentencing, work-readiness training, and livelihood coaching activities for 805 youth ages 15–24, in Regions Four, Six, Nine, and Ten. SKYE is also working within the New Opportunity Corps detention facility in Region Two.
The Project is funded by USAID under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative and executed through the Education Development Center; a US based global education and training institution.
On Friday, October 19, last, USAID’s Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) Project, and representatives of other stakeholder agencies commenced work at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. Officials from USAID attended court proceedings in Georgetown on Friday last to assist the Magistrate in identifying alternatives to sentencing 3 at-risk youth to incarceration.
In October and November, these youth will interface with SKYE’s Employment Coaches to develop Individual Employability Plans and map out their paths to sustained employment opportunities and reintegration into communities.
Additionally, they will attend counseling with the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security – Probation Department as an element of their diverted sentence.
The SKYE Project is a two-year initiative to equip youth with market-driven skills and improve their ability to transition into the workforce. SKYE’s target youth beneficiaries are school dropouts, youth who completed formal education but do not have the necessary skills to find employment, and youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
The Inter-Agency Team on Juvenile Justice is a group supported and formed by USAID’s SKYE Project to be a sustainable body to advance justice options for youth, within the existing legal framework.
Key members in the team include the Ministry of Human Services, UN’s Rights of the Child Commission, the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, the Probation Department, UNICEF, and USAID’s SKYE Project.
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