Belize Reviews Youth Diversion Program to Keep Children Out of Court

The Community Rehabilitation Department (CRD) is reviewing and updating its guidelines on diversion services. Diversion is a process that gives children and young people who come into contact with the law an opportunity to receive guidance, counseling, and support while taking responsibility for their actions, instead of immediately going through the regular court process. The goal is to help them make better choices, stay on the right path, and reduce the chances of them getting into trouble again. The revision of the diversion services took place today via an held an all-day validation workshop today at the Grand Resort in Belize City. The workshop brought together CRD staff, government officials, legal experts, and development partners to review the procedures and make sure they are clear, effective, and ready to be used. Love News spoke with Acting Director of CRD, Ganesha Smith, who explained why strengthening diversion services is important and how these efforts can better support children and young people.

Ganesha Smith, Acting Director, CDR: “We have our key stakeholders who is the judiciary, the magistrates. We have police in attendance. We have education. We have our youth parliamentarians. And we have other NGOs. And so these persons are our key stakeholders when we are working diversion. Diversion is a process that removes a child who has come in conflict with the law from going through formal court proceedings and diverted to the department for rehabilitation. Now I know most people might say diversion might be something not holding children accountable of the offenses they may have committed. It is not that. It is having them accept responsibility for their actions while working with them to make better decisions through rehabilitation. One of the biggest takeaways from this validation session is to have a lot more of the cases diverted from police. So diversion can happen at two points. It can happen at the police station and it can happen at court. One of our big takeaways is to have more of those cases referred to us or diverted to us from the police as opposed to having that minor have any type of interaction with the court. It’s definitely something new for our country in terms of persons understanding but what the aim is is to give our young persons a second chance. It’s not allowing them to be defined by one mistake. It is allowing them an opportunity to change or correct that error and make better decisions going forward.”

Consultant and Attorney-at-Law Diana Shaw spoke on how the updated procedures will help young people understand the consequences of their actions while receiving the guidance and support needed to move forward and get a second chance.  Shaw also noted that diversion services have been part of Belize’s efforts since 2017. 

Diana Shaw, Consultant, Attorney at Law: “So what these SOPs will do will be one, reinforcing the rights of children, ensuring that the decisions that are being made are in the best interests of children, but at the same time recognizing the reforms that have been made to the law. So we recently had the passing of a new legislation, the Alternative Sentencing Act, which broadens the different frameworks and it has giving us guidance for how the justice system should be looking at offenses. But before we get children into the criminal justice system the diversion program provides opportunities through police diversion, for the police to do interventions with the support of CRD to prevent children from getting a charge altogether. Of course, there are eligibility requirements. Not every situation is suitable for that. But where it is suitable, we want to ensure that those children are kept out of the justice system and so that they are given the opportunity to be rehabilitated and their families are able to better support their development. We are excited to hear the good results that are coming out, as I said before, diversion as we started in 2017. And now there is a body of learning that shows that diversion is effective in keeping children from reoffending. There is a very high rate of children who have not reoffended once they have completed diversion. We are hearing the stories from the parents and the family members, how the child’s participation in diversion transformed the child’s outlook, how they received training as parents about issues that they needed to address in terms of raising teenagers and dealing with behaviors of children, how they have seen that the program has supported their parenting of their children. So what we’re coming today with the SOPs is bringing all of that into what we have learned and strengthening what is there for the police, for the CRD, the justice system and the different actors that are supporting diversion so that we can have a modernized criminal justice system that really recognizes that children who offend can be rehabilitated and that diversion is a suitable mechanism to do that and to allow those children to have a second chance.” 

Once the review process is completed, the updated procedures will be approved and signed by key agencies, including the justice system, the police, and the Community Rehabilitation Department, before they are put into use.  The workshop was held in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, through its PACE Justice Programme, with funding from the European Union.