Our current Project                     

Barbados

​Recent decades have seen a sea-change in the scientific understanding of adolescent character development. Adolescence is now widely recognized as a critical developmental period in which young persons’ values and identities can be transformed, provoking a reevaluation of traditional responses to juvenile offending.  Public perception and institutional policies concerning juvenile offenders, however, have not always kept pace.
 
In many Caribbean nations, juvenile justice systems have been slow to introduce evidence-based practices. Hundreds of adolescents throughout the Caribbean remain incarcerated in isolated facilities modelled on the punitive, colonial system of the British ‘Government Industrial School’(GIS). These facilities are geographically, socially and educationally remote from mainstream Barbadian culture, offering few opportunities for residents to cultivate character strengths through constructive relationships. Isolation in this critical period not only frustrates the natural developmental trajectory, but is known to escalate re-offending and future dependency.  
 
What can be done to integrate developmental science with juvenile detention practices in the Caribbean, and to enhance its direct impact on the lives of incarcerated adolescents?
 
We propose that part of the solution is to forge engaged community relationships – positive, personal relationships between incarcerated adolescents and members of their wider communities. We will test this hypothesis in Barbados’s GISs through two parallel, scalable intervention sets which aim to increase the Bajan public’s understanding of adolescents’ developmental potential and to initiate direct, engaged relationships with community members, promoting agency, trust and hope (PATH).
 
Barbados is fertile ground for this investigation. There is a powerful momentum for change, with a juvenile justice reform bill scheduled for parliamentary vote, endorsing a transformative agenda. The GIS youths themselves are well-suited to developmental interventions; more than 80% are detained for non-violent, status offenses such as homelessness, arising in circumstances of family breakdown, domestic displacement or parental abandonment.  

A recent UNICEF Situation Analysis (2015) recommended systemic changes to both legislation and juvenile detention practices. We are working to provide a scientific foundation for these changes and to implement the current government's vision of innovative programmes to unlock the developmental potential of justice-involved Barbadian youths.  

      We are working to discover how Barbadian adolescents (13-18 years) score on a range
of mental health and psycho-social tests compared with international samples.

We aim to understand the mental health and literacy needs of both incarcerated
Barbadian adolescents and community school populations.
 
We have designed and implemented a locally-informed, tailored program for
offenders that can also be applied to at-risk non-offenders in the community.

​ASSESS JUVENILES' SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL RISK FACTORS 

In collaboration with researchers from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, we have undertaken quantitative and qualitative research to guide us in matching the needs of  Barbadian young offenders with scientifically-informed interventions. Specifically, we aim to identify scores on validated tests that reflect norms and standards in a Barbadian cultural context, permitting more accurate risk assessment and more effective interventions.  This data makes us uniquely well-placed ​to serve the specific needs of the local population of at-risk youths.

DEVELOP
​EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS 

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Our PATH Programme is a suite of interventions designed to promote Personal Agency, Trust and ​Hope for adolescent incarcerates.  At present, PATH is being implemented in collaboration with the Barbadian Ministry of Home Affairs at Barbados's Government Industrial Schools (juvenile secure detention units). We work in partnership with other government agencies, NGOs and  specialist faculty at the University of the West Indies.

REDUCE RECIDIVISM AND ENHANCE RESILIANCE

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Extensive studies and a considerable body of research show that community engagement and support increase positive outcomes for incarcerated juveniles, leading to happier and more productive futures. By encouraging targeted community interaction, we aim to facilitate seamless reintegration following release, and to encourage former offenders' constructive participation in the communities supporting their growth.

OUR GOALs

Bringing justice-involved children the opportunities they deserve

Change

Nurture

Prepare

Contact us: otdjn​@developmentaljustice.org