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Tranquility Bay: helping or harming
Cayman's youth?
March 6, 2008
By:
karen@caymannetnews.com
Boys lying on their faces in “observation placement” at Tranquility
Bay.
Concerns are once again being
voiced about the use of Tranquility Bay, in Jamaica, as a
rehabilitation centre for young Caymanians.
The issue came to the public’s
attention following reports of a juvenile who was allegedly swiftly
moved from the Frances Bodden Girls Home in Grand Cayman to the
facility without the family’s approval.
Described as a ‘specialty boarding
school’, Tranquility Bay is a privately run educational facility for
troubled youth. The institution operates under the guidelines of the
World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS),
located in St George, Utah.
According to the institution’s
website, the mission statement is “To challenge and motivate the
student in a structured, individualized learning environment, which
provides exposure to development of skills and attitudes necessary
for academic and social success so they become mature, responsible
and contributing members of society.”
In the absence of a secure,
educational facility in the Cayman Islands, young people who are not
part of the criminal justice system and cannot go to Eagle House,
but who need a more secure facility than can be provided by the
Frances Bodden Girls Home and Bonaventure Boys Home, are sent to
Tranquility Bay.
In a letter to this publication,
Maia Szalavitz expressed shock at learning that young people are
sent to Tranquility Bay from the Cayman Islands. Ms Szalavitz is
author of the book ‘Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry
Cons Parents and Hurts Kids’ (Riverhead Books, 2006).
The author said that whilst
researching for her book she “spoke to dozens of parents and teens
who report horrifying abuses at Tranquility Bay”. She also said that
the care provided by the institution was not linked with the
successful treatment of children but, “with post-traumatic stress
disorder and increased risk of ongoing problems like addiction”.
The Final Report of Cayman Islands
Human Rights Committee’s (HRC) observations on a series of hearings
involving females facing criminal allegations in the Youth Court
during 2007 raised a ‘significant’ number of human rights concerns.
The Report recognises the
difficulties faced by agencies in reaching an appropriate resolution
in complex cases that have competing and conflicting priorities.
However, it points to various legal
instruments that highlight the need to take account of the interest
of juveniles, particularly the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules
for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (otherwise known as The
Beijing Rules) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
“What is clear from both the
Beijing Rules and the CRC is that the interests of the child should
be the main concern,” reads the Report. It also refers to Article 3
of the CRC which states:
“In all actions involving children,
whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions,
courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the
best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.”
The issue of whether sending young
people to the Jamaican facility is in ‘the best interest’ of
Caymanian youth was questioned by the judge in the case of one of
the aforementioned young females.
The Report quotes the judge as
stating, “In the absence of formal ruling from ministers, young
defendants go to Tranquility Bay. In our experience it is uniformly
bad.”
“It is high time that we have a
facility here or explore alternatives,” the judge is reported as
saying.
“We need a secure facility with an
education facility… We need a secure remand facility where (young
people) can receive education and therapy… Eagle House does not
begin to meet needs of boys and for girls there is nothing at all…
Frances Bodden is a home, it does not offer counselling and is not
properly built for re-training or re-education… We need some
facility between home and prison.”
The HRC’s Report on the Convention
of the Rights of the Child dated Wednesday, 13 September 2006 refers
to the Children Law 2003, which was drawn up to protect children and
to ensure their rights contained in the CRC. However at the time of
the Report the Law had not been enforced and to date, still remains
un-enforced.
One of the concerns raised by
Latchmin ‘Charlene’ Scott, the mother of the young person recently
sent to Tranquility Bay, is the apparent secrecy surrounding the
centre and the inability for her child to make contact with family
members by telephone.
When asked to comment on this
practice Deanna Look Loy, Director of the Children and Family
Services Department said, “The restrictions regarding parental
contact via telephone is in accordance with the rules of Tranquility
Bay.”
An email was sent to the Academic
Administrator at Tranquility Bay, seeking comments on the
institution’s educational provision. A response was not received
prior to going to print.
karen@caymannetnews.com
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