Beyond St Michael’s gates

Consider what the St Michael’s Home for Boys is intended to be.

It has been in operation for more than 100 years. It is supposed to be a rehabilitation and correction centre for boys between the ages of 10 and 18. Some of them have been placed in the home for just being uncontrollable or badly-behaved while more serious offences such as murder and larceny have been the entry tickets for others.

The compound is supposed to be self-contained, with open spaces and classrooms for its occupants.

They are supposed to be exposed to basic educational tools, and the fundamentals of a trade. The home is supposed to manned by staff skilled in educating, counselling, and in times when their charges are unruly, containing them. A security detail and security measures are supposed to be in place to guard against escape or boys turning on one another or even harming themselves.

But Sunday Newsday found these ideals for the home not to be the case. Reports of students escaping the compound abound, even up to recently when 11 of them were able to break out of detention.

Many of the youths have said they were running away from physical abuse or worse. It was even reported that a youth died in the home, while horse-playing with another.

When Sunday Newsday gained access beyond the gates of St Michael’s, the compound was found to be neglected, dilapidated and filthy.

The youthful charges were, for the most part, uncared for, and when this was not the case, wards inside the home complained of abuse and other ill-treatment. Concerned staff and relatives of the boys are now calling for a drastic change in the management saying it is becoming increasingly apparent that this home, which is expected to rehabilitate the boys, is now doing more harm than good.

“The home needs less jobs for people and more programmes for the kids,” said one social worker assigned to the school. “We have a real opportunity to change the lives of these youths, and I feel that we are squandering it.” LIFE BEHIND THE GATES People pass the tall fence and locked gates of the home, located on Western Main Road in Diego Martin, daily. A quick glance gives the casual onlooker the impression that the boys are safe and are in capable hands; but the picture changes, and is even shattered as one gets past the gates.

From the time one enters the home, there is a sense of neglect and apathy. Young, barefooted boys with nothing to do, meander along the perimeter of the fence. Some of them did not even have clothes on their backs. A 20-foot-fence surrounds the home, and is guarded by a few stern looking security officers, but other than that, there is little to no visible security. Aside from the security at the front gate, only one other guard in uniform was seen. The rest of the people at the home were staff members. Sunday Newsday counted six active staff on the compound at the time, three of whom were women. The women were stationed outside in the common area while the men were placed in a section of the home, called the rehabilitation centre.

While there are several classrooms, none are operational. Sunday Newsday was told that students there have a woodworking room, a mechanic shop, a class where they could learn masonry, and other classes. There is even a primary school. However, none of these classrooms were in use because neither the students nor the contracted teachers are given the encouragement to attend. Living and sleeping areas in the common section resembles more a concentration camp than a living area for teenaged boys. Walls were covered with filth and gang signs, and the floors were covered with wet clothes and random trash. Even the fence which was designed to keep the boys inside the home is falling apart.

There are sections where the barbed wire intended to secure the compound was pulled down.

At other sections, there are pieces of cloth covering the barbed wire.

Sunday Newsday was told that these sections are where the boys escape from. After they get over the fence, they simply have to walk down a river to the main road, and they are free to go wherever they want. If it is discovered that 24 hours have passed and one of the boys is missing, it would be logged, and if he remains missing for another 24 hours, the staff will notify the police, and the child’s parents.

Supervisors who are charged with looking after the boys confine themselves to an office located to the back of the compound.

The youths are usually left on their own. A staff member, who worked at the home for 13 years, said she should not be expected to follow the children around to make sure they do not escape.

“What are the security guards there for?” said the supervisor.

“What am I supposed to do? Lock up my office and run around, watching these children?” THE REHABILITATION CENTRE The rehabilitation centre is partitioned by a 20-foot-tall wire fence. The building itself is divided into seven cells meant to accommodate a maximum of 14 boys.

Sunday Newsday was told the facility had been occupied by up to 31 boys at one point.

The centre is in effect a remand yard for boys under the age of 18.

Most have been charged with serious crimes, but others come from the common area. The youths from the common area, who are usually taken to the home for being unruly, mix with more serious offenders with little to no supervision, and no extra-curricular activities.

That many boys in one cramped space holds the potential for confrontation.

Discipline in the centre is the same as in the prisons, a combination of neglect and brutality. Youths have been subjected to all manner of abuse, by their guards and their peers, while in the centre.

One boy told Sunday Newsday that he has experienced life in both sections of the home. He spent six months in the centre.

“Life inside there is really hard,” he said. “Sometimes two boys would sleep in one cell on a mattress, but when it is crowded, boys would be sleeping on the ground outside the cells. Each cell could hold about six boys. They let police come in and beat up on the boys. There was one time that I got stabbed by another boy, and they called the police in. The police beat up everyone in the centre. And the other day when the boys escaped, they rounded up all the other boys at the home and beat us up again.

But we didn’t have anything to do with them escaping.” Boys need real help A social worker at the home said no real kind of rehabilitation can take place if the boys are confined to their cells, and even less can be done for the boys without proper management of the home. Sunday Newsday understands that psychologists and social workers have been assigned to the centre, but a social worker said more are needed.

“People who know about social work and criminology is what is really needed for that school,” said the social worker.

“You have to really have a heart for these youths. This is a helping profession where we help change lives. Some of these boys have no parents, or if they do, their parents are on drugs. Others may not have a father – either he is absent, in jail or dead – and that is the environment they are coming from. Some of these children, all they know is survival.” While the wards at the home are neglected by most of the staff, the social departments seem to be focused on the betterment of the children.

Social workers are tasked with attending court matters on the children’s behalf, monitoring their behaviour, and counselling and assistance with obligations like getting a bank account or an ID card.

Social workers are calling for more staff that are devoted to advancing the lives of the youths.

“There are people in this home who are willing to help these youths. There are staff members here that, despite all the challenges, still try to make it out to the home for the boys.

“Some staff members even organise programmes out of their own pockets. But we need better leadership, We need better management,” said a social worker.

On June 15, 11 of the boys escaped from the home. Since then five of the boys have been recaptured.

Sunday Newsday understands that at least three of them have since been sent to the Youth Training Cen