to children and allows for measures to “be implemented in the context of the economic, social
and cultural conditions prevailing’ in each state.
In Trinidad and Tobago the framework for the detention of children post trial is regulated by the
Children Act. Children offenders who are found guilty and are under the age of ten may be sent
to a certified Orphanage.176 This is an institution for the industrial training of children, where
they are lodged, clothed, fed and taught.177 Juvenile offenders who are found guilty and are
between the ages of ten and sixteen are sent to certified industrial schools,178 where they are
clothed, fed and taught, until they attain the age of eighteen. In order ensure that these
institutions operate at a standard that ensures that the best interest of the child are protected, the
act provides for an inspector whose role it is to supervise orphanages and industrial schools.
179
To regulate behaviour of children in these institutions, disobedience and attempts to escape are
criminalized by the Children Act.180
The detention of juvenile offenders who are found guilty and are between the ages of sixteen and
eighteen is regulated by the Young Offenders Detention Act181. Juvenile offenders are generally
committed to the Youth Training Centre, a centre for the detention of ‘young offenders’
regulated by the commissioner of prisons. This legislation is peculiar in Trinidad and Tobago
because although the Children Act offers no special protection to persons over the age of 16, the
Young Offenders Detention Act offers special detention measures for juvenile offenders who
have been convicted and are between the ages of 16-18. The protection offered is also not
unfettered as persons falling under the protection of the Young Offenders Detention Act, may
still be sent to an adult prison on at the discretion of the court and when convicted of murder,
which is contrary to international law.
The Young Offenders Detention Act sets out the broad legislative framework for the running of
the institution.182 In analyzing the Youth Training Centre the Caribbean basin security initiative
stated that there is “clearly a systematic effort within the YTC to maintain a rehabilitative
176
Supra fn 14 at s 44(2)
Supra fn 14 at s 29(1)
178
Supra fn 14 at s 43
179
Supra fn 14 at s 31
180
Supra fn 14 at s 61,62,63
181
Young Offenders Detention Act, Chap 13:05, Laws of Trinidad and Tobago
182
Supra fn 75 at s 7
177
98