A small cluster of public secondary schools, mostly serving densely populated working-class communities, featured prominently in the school backgrounds of young men on remand for violent crimes, according to a new study.
The findings, presented Thursday by the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, showed that 47 accused offenders under age 25 had attended at least 16 secondary schools across Barbados. St George Secondary accounted for the largest share at 15 per cent, followed by Graydon Sealy and Parkinson Memorial Schools at 13 per cent each. St Leonard’s Boys’, Princess Margaret, and Frederick Smith each contributed nine per cent. Coleridge and Parry and Daryll Jordan accounted for six per cent each, while Alleyne and Grantley Adams Memorial Schools each represented four per cent. Alma Parris, Deighton Griffith, Christ Church Foundation, Lester Vaughan, New Horizon Academy, and Windsor High each accounted for two per cent of the cohort.
The findings came from a report titled An Examination of the Social Histories of Accused Young Offenders Under 25 Years of Age on Remand at the Barbados Prison Service and were unveiled at the Courtyard by Marriott in Christ Church.
The cohort was overwhelmingly male (46 males and one female), mostly aged 19 to 25 (91 per cent), with the remainder aged 16 to 18. Most were Barbadian (94 per cent), with small numbers from Guyana (four per cent) and Jamaica (two per cent). The average time on remand was five years.
Senior Research Analyst Kirt Goodridge said many of the young men now on remand had struggled in school long before they entered the justice system.
“Most of the inmates, 83 per cent, didn’t finish secondary school,” he said. “Many dropped out around age 15, often before sitting key exams.”
He added that a large number had left under disciplinary circumstances, including fighting, expulsion, or placement at the Government Industrial School. “Suspensions were common,” Goodridge said. “Eighty-three per cent were suspended at least once, and many faced repeated disciplinary action.”
He warned that these early signs were not being addressed adequately. “When you’re repeatedly being suspended for fighting, that is a sign that something is going on,” he said. “If that is not addressed, if that is not tackled, it will escalate further. If you start off fighting with fists, you graduate to rocks, you graduate to knives, you graduate to more violent forms of fighting.”
Goodridge said early school leaving often went hand in hand with substance use, unstable home lives, and visible aggression.
“So early school leaving coincided with adolescent substance abuse,” he explained, “which combined with visible aggressive behaviours fuelled suspensions and exclusion. Limited education led to precarious work, while persistent drug use and peer influences reinforced violence. Together, these factors create the self-reinforcing cycle of alienation, instability and offending.”
He urged stronger social support within schools. “We need to implement structures and systems that enable us to put social workers in school so that we can target these young men at an early age, so that we have guidance at a very, very early age,” he said. “Because I’m sure… as a teacher you can see that a young person is on a particular path at a very early age.”
The study painted a stark picture of early school departure and chronic underachievement. Most of the young men had left school between ages 13 and 18, with 15 being the average exit point. Nearly three-quarters dropped out at 15 or 16, often under disciplinary pressure.
Expulsion and voluntary departure were the most common reasons, each accounting for 30 per cent of cases. Others were removed administratively or placed at the Government Industrial School. Suspensions were ever present; 83 per cent had been suspended at least once, and nearly half had faced five or more. Fighting was the leading cause.
By the time they entered the workforce, most had few qualifications and limited options. Eighty-three per cent had held jobs, but mostly in low-wage or unskilled roles. Construction and trades featured prominently, while nearly one in five were unemployed before incarceration. Only ten per cent had earned a single CXC certificate. (SZB)
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