BRIDGETOWN, Barbados– A High Court judge is calling for a revamped education system that includes options for troublesome students other than suspension and expulsion to address the crime situation in Barbados.
Justice Carlisle Greaves also calls for new thinkers and ideas to tackle the scourge even as he expressed concern that authorities “give up on our people too easily” rather than offer them avenues to redeem themselves.
“We really should not have so many people committing a crime, . . . and instead of putting so many people in jail, we should be putting them through school, university, polytechnic, that kind of thing, so that we will build up ourselves, build up our nation. We cannot do criminal justice on the cheap,” Justice Greaves told a sitting of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“No state should have to spend all of this money on judges to hear cases, prosecutors to prosecute them, investigators for investigating them, and prisons to hold them. We should be spending this money on healthcare, education, and building . . . roads, but some people drive us into this. I do not understand why as a people, we seem to so easily choose the dark path, the path of calamity, rather than progress,” Justice Greaves added.
The judge, referring to some of the presentencing reports presented to the court on offenders, suggested that the issue be tackled at the school level, through education reform, and by investing in the sector in “the correct way.
“I believe we should be investing many resources in remedial programs. When you look through these files, many of these gentlemen coming in here dropped out of school with no certification.
“A man cannot be so dumb that he can’t get [any] certificates. Maybe the certificates . . . require them to get it at the wrong time, so we need to reform our whole education [system],” Justice Greaves said, pointing to the need to end the practice of suspending students for bad behavior and then leaving them to their own devices.
“We have in Barbados where children get suspended for bad behavior for two weeks, and he is home knocking around doing foolishness. He should be sent to a place where there are specialist teachers and counselors to deal with the issues that need to be dealt with and then return to his classroom to maintain some pride,” Justice Greaves said.
“You have to be able to see where people are not performing or are not going to perform and [fix it]. We have to be slow in kicking people out of school early because they are giving trouble when we should be putting them in a remedial place for a fixed period, then they could go back to school.”
He told the Court that “everybody was not made to sit in a classroom and memorize and regurgitate” and called for “new ideas and ways” to steer the youth from a life of crime.
The judge said that judicial officers and law enforcement officers have greater insight into some of the issues plaguing the youth and should be encouraged to go into schools and speak to children candidly about the dangers of getting involved with guns, drugs, and other crimes.
“There is no subject in our classrooms, as far as I know, that teaches our children about social responsibility. We should have an issue like that. We should be teaching law in our classes from 13, so [one] understands that it is an offense to possess drugs and guns.
“I am not talking about coming into the place and threatening [them]. I am talking about the ability to communicate and show the children that things that they take lightly [should] be taken more seriously. Show them how easy it is to get into trouble. We need programs like that. ” Justice Greaves added, we got a lot of work to do to turn around our people,” Justice Greaves added.
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