Closure threatens nationalist children
Community workers have expressed concern that with the threat of
closure hanging over St Patrick's Training school on the Glen
Road in West Belfast nationalist boys will be sent to Lisnevin
which is classed as a Grade C prison staffed mostly by
Protestants and which houses mostly Protestants.
One community worker told An Phoblacht that mixing Catholics with
Protestants in a predominantly Protestant environment -
especially as a lot of the children concerned have emotional and
behavioural difficulties - could lead to sectarian difficulties.
The threat to those in Lisnevin was highlighted in a CAJ
document, its response to the Draft Criminal Justice (Children)
Order, which said, ``CAJ has received a number of complaints of
assaults, intimidation and verbal abuse by staff of children in
Lisnevin''.
CAJ went on to say there were two serious riots in Lisnevin in
1994 and they received ``alarming but unsubstantiated'', reports
about the role of the staff in these riots and called for a
public inquiry. This inquiry was never granted and people who
have spoken to An Phoblacht have said that these riots may have
had a sectarian dimension with the staff playing an anti-Catholic
role.
After the riots many of the children were moved to the Young
Offenders Centre after hearings before a specially convened
court.
We were told that all the children moved were nationalist.
Also the British government has brought control of training
schools under the adminstration of the Juvenile Justice Board.
The members of the board were formally the board of the now
closed Rathgael Training school, itself a predominantly
Protestant staffed school catering for Protestants.
Given that the ethos of the board and the ethos of Lisnevin is
Protestant and lean towards punishment and control then the needs
of Catholic children in the prison are secondary. This problem is
compounded by the fact that, ``more Catholic and ethnic minority
children are charged by the RUC in the first instance'', according
to our source.
Apart from the wider implications for fair employment as
Catholics are traditionally under-represented in the criminal
justice system there is the welfare of the children to be
considered.
``So with the new children's Order proposing that the courts no
longer consider religion when placing a child in custody and with
overall control of the new system being transferred into the
statutory sector there is a genuine fear that vulnerable Catholic
children will be exposed to danger'', we were told.
`Mr Average' document ``sectarian''
NIO document which describes Training Schools' `average'
admission as a ``Roman Catholic'' from West Belfast has been
described as sectarian.
A West Belfast community worker asked why the document was
necessary. ``What use is this except to pander to a sectarian
agenda. Substitute ``black'' for Catholic and ``Brixton'' for West
Belfast and it would be slammed as racist,'' he said.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)