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Children in crisis
Childcare and protection cases dominate Children’s Court welfare listings
OF the of 8,992 new cases filed in the specialised family courts of Jamaica for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, those concerning “childcare and protection” dominated the case activity on Child Welfare Matters (a division of the Children’s Court) across the seven specialised family courts in the island, with the Westmoreland and St James courts seeing the bulk of these.
Child welfare matters are divided into “uncontrollable child” (amended in the Childcare and Protection (Amendment) Act to read “child with behavioural challenges”), and “childcare and protection” cases. A breakdown of the data contained within the Chief Justice’s Fiscal Year Statistics Report 2023/2024 on the Specialised Family Courts of Jamaica shows that a total 661 “childcare and protection” cases were filed in those courts, as against 280 “uncontrollable child” matters.
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The report, which examines criminal, family matters, domestic violence, child welfare, civil, and enforcement activities, covers the performance of seven specialised family courts, namely, the Corporate Area Family Court, Hanover Family Court, St James Family Court, Westmoreland Family Court, Trelawny Family Court, Manchester Family Court, and Chapelton Family Court.
According to the report, a total 159 child welfare cases were filed at the Corporate Area Family Court for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, the larger proportion of which were childcare and protection cases which accounted for 104 or 65.41 per cent, while the remaining portion were uncontrollable child cases, with 55 or 34.59 per cent. It said 108 childcare and protection cases were disposed of during the reporting period while 52 uncontrollable child cases were disposed, and one each become inactive.
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For the St James Family Court 332 child welfare cases were filed, the larger proportion of which were childcare and protection cases that accounted for 233 or 70.18 per cent, while cases of uncontrollable child, with 99 or 29.82 per cent, accounted for the remaining proportion. For the reporting period, 101 childcare and protection cases were disposed of, as were 73 uncontrollable child cases. There were seven inactive uncontrollable child cases which became inactive during the period, while two childcare and protection cases became inactive.
Meanwhile for the Hanover Family Court, of the 82 child welfare cases filed, the larger proportion was again childcare and protection cases, which accounted for 63 or 76.83 per cent, while the remaining portion was uncontrollable child cases with 19 or 23.17 per cent. A total 47 childcare and protection cases were settled during the reporting period while 24 uncontrollable child cases were disposed.
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For the Westmoreland Family Court there were 204 child welfare cases, with childcare and protection cases accounting for the greater share of 105 or 51.47 per cent while 55 or 34.59 per cent were matters concerning
uncontrollable children. During the period, 76 childcare protection cases were disposed of, 68 uncontrollable child cases were settled, while eight became inactive.
The pattern continued in the Trelawny Family Court where, of the 88 new child welfare cases filed, the larger proportion were childcare protection cases, which accounted for 84 or 95.45 per cent, while the remaining proportion were cases of uncontrollable child, with four or 4.55 per cent. A total 71 child welfare cases were disposed of during the fiscal year; of the cases disposed, 59 were childcare protection cases while 11 were uncontrollable child cases.
In the meantime, for the 70 child welfare cases filed at the Manchester Family Court, uncontrollable child cases accounted for 43 or 61.43 per cent while cases classified as childcare protection accounted for the remaining proportion, with 27 or 38.57 per cent. Thirty childcare and protection cases were disposed of during the period, 26 uncontrollable child cases were disposed of, and seven cases concerning uncontrollable children became inactive.
For the Chapelton Family Court, the 50 child welfare cases filed included 29 childcare and protection cases and 21 uncontrollable child matters. A total 19 childcare protection cases were settled by that court while seven uncontrollable child cases were disposed of, with one becoming inactive.
Under the Childcare and Protection Act, and its amendment, a child is considered “in need of care and protection” in circumstances including where the child is (a) having no parent or guardian, or having a parent or guardian unfit to exercise care and guardianship, or not exercising proper care and guardianship, is falling into bad associations, or is exposed to moral danger; (b) is being cared for in circumstances in which the child’s physical or mental health or emotional state is being seriously impaired or there is a substantial risk that it will be seriously impaired; (c) is a child in respect of whom any offence mentioned in the Second Schedule has been committed or attempted to be committed; (d) is a member of the same household as a child in respect of whom such an offence has been committed; (e) is a member of the same household as a person who has been convicted of such an offence in respect of a child; or (f) is a child with behavioural challenges. The Second Schedule outlines specific offences, primarily violent or sexual in nature.
In 2023 Parliament amended the Act to, among other things, bring an end to locking up children who have not committed a criminal offence but who have been deemed “uncontrollable”. Section 24 of the legislation, which allowed for the court to make correctional orders for children brought before it by a parent or guardian who felt the child was uncontrollable, was also repealed.
Then Education Minister Fayval Williams told Parliament at the time that, “as soon as the law is passed it will stop using the term ‘uncontrollable’ and instead use the term ‘behavioural issues’ and make provisions for the orders that may be made by the court, in respect of such a child, to include a residential therapeutic order or a non-residential therapeutic order, having regard to the results of a social inquiry report and a physiological or psychiatric report”.
