Five mentally ill boys, a dozen non-criminals in need of care and protection, lapsing security, declining discipline, staff on strike and management besieged by political neglect—these are the defining characteristics of the social pus-filled sore known as the Boys Training Centre. The centre has a better woodwork facility than many secondary schools but no woodwork instructor. The mental health counselor has been put in charge of security. The most senior security officer is absent from work more than he is present, but somehow manages not to be fired for vacating his post.

And as if things were not bad enough, there is confirmation that an outbreak of swine flu among the boys on the compound in mid-September was deliberately hushed by officials.

This week, staff of the island’s de facto prison for boys are on strike. The Boys Training Centre is in a state of emergency. But then, the Boys Training Centre has been in a constant state of emergency for the last two decades. The only reason why it is being reported now is because the state of emergency has boiled over into a media scandal—as it does at least once a year. This time, the dorms are not on fire, the dilapidated conditions are not top priority and none of the boys are not injured (or dead) as a result of discipline gone wrong. But the situation is just as serious, if not more serious, than the time when one of the wards, Jamal Roberts, burnt to death in a cell not fit for keeping animals.

For years, BTC wards, staff and management have been given lip service without action being taken. Politicians on both sides of the political fence have visited the Massade Boys Training Centre
and heaped promises on top of promises, none of which have materialized. Private sector organizations like Sandals and NGOs ranging from steelpan groups to football clubs have volunteered their resources and efforts with some success but to no avail because the government never follows up on its end of the deal. The more things changed the more they stayed the same.

The current furor over BTC did not start with the assault of a female security officer by one of the boys, as has been widely reported. The altercation between the boy and the security officer was just an incident which grabbed the media’s attention. Unfortunately, it also distracted reporters from the very real and important issues dragging BTC down. The result was mis-reporting. The security officer was not pregnant at all, as reported on radio and television. Medical examinations showed that she suffered injuries to her kidneys. As if things weren’t bad enough at BTC, without broadcast reporters making them out to be worse than they actually are.

It’s easy to see what is wrong with the Boys Training Centre. First, the government has to make up its mind whether BTC is a prison, a rehab facility, a mental clinic or an orphanage. It cannot continue to pretend to be all of the above. It can’t even be two out of four. It can only be one.

But currently BTC houses five mentally ill boys, 12 non-criminal care and protection wards and 15 convicted juvenile offenders, all of them sharing the same dorms with no distinction made between them. To make things worse, these three different kinds of boys-in-need—the mental, the orphaned and the criminal, for want of better words—are all lumped together in a tragically inadequate building which cannot service any of their needs, not even in the worst case scenario.

And now, the worst case scenario has happened, the arguably criminal neglect of BTC only continues. An outbreak of swine flu that infected BTC from mid-September right through October was according to sources at the facility never addressed by the health ministry or the department of health and human services. There are no isolation rooms either for security or for health reasons and so the H1N1 positive boys were put back in the same dorms as all the other boys causing disturbing flu-like symptoms to persist through the last few weeks.

While staff and management seem to be at loggerheads over what the problems and solutions are for the politically neglected Boys Training Centre, they agree on one thing—the immediate need is for adequate staff, especially in the area of security.

Just a few minutes before interviews for this story started, one of the boys absconded. There was no security at the gate. In fact, one of the most senior security officers at BTC is almost never at work. Both staff and management marveled that he is allowed to keep his job in spite of being absent more than present. Anyone else would have been considered to have vacated their post a hundred times over.

“There is no structure,” the centre’s CSA shop steward, Marlon Williams, told the STAR of the decline of discipline at BTC. “For a few months now, there has been a breakdown in the structure. The current system needs to change because there is no recourse for discipline. The disciplinary structure is grossly inadequate. Sometimes, they deny them home leave and put them in a dorm. What we need is additional security staffing. Without that, it will occur again. There is not enough supervision.”

BTC’s new manager Leonard Terrence agreed when the STAR interviewed him.

“Everything at the centre revolves around the staff,” Terrence said. But after two months at BTC, the new guy cannot help but admit that, “We’re talking about having a full compliment of staff, but we also have to think about the quality of staff we need—the efficiency and deficiency of staff.”

In a way, it is a condemnation of the very staff which is on strike for better conditions. One of the striking staffers when asked what he would do if a ward spat in his face said, “I would give him a good slap.”

“We are trying to teach them respect,” said Terrence. “We need people here who understand that these kids have underlying problems. They have psychiatric and psychological problems, problems with the way they were socialized, medical problems. And all these things increase the likelihood of them committing an offence. They are not normal, they are special kids, in their own way. Even the ones who commit minor offences are special because while they are no different than kids who are not here but are doing the same thing, they are here and it gives us a head start in dealing with their issues. We cannot see them like normal kids who deserve a slap for rudeness.”

Staff have their own criticisms of the new manager. “Management has to be more pro-active,” one staff member told the STAR. “The current manager has been trying. He made several proposals to the government. However, the boys are so bold, they are cursing, they are never properly attired or groomed. Now, they are lifting up the skirts of female staff and trying to wine on them. They don’t respond to discipline. There is no real consequence for any wrongdoing.”

But regardless of whether management or staff is more to blame for the chronic evils festering at the Boys Training Centre, there is no arguing about where the buck stops. Both the current UWP government and the Labour government before have been confronted with the malignancy that lurks under BTC’s surface and pops its head up every once in a while. Both political parties have committed themselves to separating the delinquents from the boys who merely need a foster home. Both political parties have promised to find a new home for the centre, recognizing that the current building is only good enough for demolition. Gros Islet MPs from both political parties as well as ministers of government from both sides have given their solemn promises—but all of it has come to nothing.

The result, of course, is that boys continue to abuse and assault each other, they continue to abscond and they continue to learn that the rules mean nothing, the staff and management are helpless and the leaders of their country don’t give a damn what happens to them.

Striking BTC staff took their grouses to the Civil Service Association and the permanent secretary of the home affairs ministry last Monday. They discussed a long list of chronic problems which government after government has neglected to address. The issues included atrocious physical working conditions, dangerous electrical problems, the unfulfilled promise of relocation, the separation of convicted delinquents from boys who are simply under the state’s care and protection and the perennial issue of discipline. Now they are willing to put
up with all the other injustices that both they and the boys of BTC have been enduring since time immemorial if only they can get adequate staff and security to bring the neglected and increasingly lawless boys back under control.

They doubt that the government will hear them as they do not have the power to shut down the tourism industry at a moment’s notice, like WASCO workers did. But even with their doubts, frustrations and disgust mounting, they continue striking, hoping against hope that something will finally be done to take BTC out of the mire that careless leaders have left it in for decades. And they have one more card yet to play.

The swine flu scare demonstrated to BTC workers the danger that the government is willing to place them in. Having certain knowledge that the government would let H1N1 spread through BTC rather than take positive action, they are now more ready than ever to take action at the drop of a hat.

“A second wave of swine flu has been predicted,” an influential staffer told the STAR. “If there is a second wave of swine flu, it could be a disaster. But I will say this: The next case of swine flu will result in a staff walk-out, because after what happened last month, we don’t trust the government to do anything about it.”

If and when it happens and the boys of BTC are left unattended to commit all the mischief their minds can conjure, the leadership of this island will have only itself to blame.

At press time the STAR could not reach officials at the health ministry for comment.