UPDATE ON THE RELEASE OF THE TWO YOUNGSTERS RELEASED IN THE MIDDLE REGION STABBING MURDER

Basically the two youth involved in the stabbing death in Middle Region, were released on a technicality. It is illegal to house children (and at 17 the are both minors) in an adult facility.  The parents of the victim are understandably upset, but the law is the law. Now there’s also the fear of retaliation, so this situation can only get worse. The conditions of the St Maarten jail are so horrific, I’m surprised that there are not more suicides, and I’m sure we don’t get all of the details on the attempts. The only reason that I didn’t take pictures of the cells, was because they confiscated my cameras. The walls in these cells are LITERALLY covered in feces, shit. Feces that has been there for a LONG time. Everyone’s aware of it, but I guess it’s supposed to be a part of the punishment,catching a deadly disease, while sitting in a cell. It’s obvious that these kids need to be locked up, but since the last juvenile attempted suicide in his jail cell, I haven’t heard any politician seriously discuss a juvenile detention center in St Maarten. And this is the reason locals are so upset.

There’s a lot of bad parenting going on in SXM, so we should be expecting a lot more violence and crime coming from our youth, in the near future. There should be preventative measures of course, but nobody seems to care about helping out these youth before it’s too late. This, I believe is Duncan’s call. The jails are in a mess, the prison is falling apart, there is no juvenile facility so you can’t hold kids whether they murder or not.

I understand why the family of the victim is upset.

Something has to be done.