Regressive approach to juvenile justice

THE EDITOR: The recent call by Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander for child offenders to be tried as adults is deeply troubling, regressive, and potentially racist in both its implications and effects. Such a policy would not only undermine decades of progress in juvenile justice reform, but also risk entrenching cycles of inequality and marginalisation among already vulnerable communities.

Internationally, the principle of treating children differently from adults in the justice system is rooted in an understanding of developmental science and human rights. Children do not yet have the same cognitive maturity or impulse control as adults. The goal of juvenile justice is therefore rehabilitation, not retribution. To abandon this principle, as the minister suggests, would be to disregard both global best practice and basic compassion.

Moreover, one must question who, in practice, would be most affected by such a policy. In TT, as in many parts of the world, the majority of young offenders come from disadvantaged, predominantly Afro-Trinidadian communities. To suggest that these children “don’t behave like children” risks reinforcing stereotypes that dehumanise poor youth. It paints them as inherently criminal rather than as products of social conditions that demand empathy, opportunity, and systemic change.

Labelling children as irredeemable and punishing them as adults will not make society safer. It will only fill our prisons with more broken lives while doing little to address the root causes of youth crime – poverty, family instability, under-resourced schools, and limited access to mental health and social services.

True leadership requires vision and balance. Instead of turning to punitive, regressive policies, the government should invest in education, mentorship programmes, and community-based rehabilitation that give our young people a chance to reform and reintegrate.

Justice must be firm, yes, but it must also be fair, humane, and forward-looking. Trying children as adults is none of these things. And we must do all within our power as a society to avoid the trap of making career and tenured criminals out of our youth offenders.

BRADY THOMAS

Diego Martin