A government study has found that at least 95 per cent of inmates convicted of violent crimes in Barbados are reading at the level of a three-year-old, raising serious questions about the connection between literacy and criminal behaviour.
Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, Cheryl Willoughby revealed the data during a recent broadcast of GIS In Focus, where she warned that the education system is missing opportunities to catch and support students with learning difficulties before they end up in the justice system.
“We did a study in the prison and over 95 per cent of the inmates charged for violent crimes were reading at the level of age three,” the government criminologist said.
“So it tells me that we have to look at our educational system. You may have children there who are experiencing learning challenges and we need to be able to pick them out of the mainstream and work with them at an individual level.”
Her comments come at a time when education officials are acknowledging that literacy remains a concern, revealing that while recent national exam results have shown some improvement, many students–especially boys–continue to struggle.
Ministry officials have since pointed to the need for continued literacy support and early intervention initiative to tackle the issue.
However, Willoughby argued that these gaps must also be taken into consideration when the conversation about crime prevention is being had.
She further noted that children with undiagnosed or unsupported learning difficulties are at greater risk of becoming disengaged from school and vulnerable to other social risks including crime.
Willoughby pointed to cases where students were expelled, “superannuated” or missed an entire term of school with no follow-up.
“We had situations where children were not at school for an entire semester and an entire term and nobody followed up as to why these children were not within the school setting,” she said.
“We need to have proper monitoring systems within our schools so that when we recognise that children are not coming to school [or] they are having problems and so on we can have social workers within the setting to address these issues early.”
Willoughby added that her unit is open to partnerships with any organisation looking to work on the issue or access data to support meaningful interventions.
(SM)
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