00:00The prison service reports that youth in the prison system are excelling at sport.
00:05We have representative teams at the level of the TTFA, under 20, and senior team.
00:13And we have been able, because of the skill of the boys, and not, so we do not have a
00:18team,
00:19but we have several of the young boys who play, representing the team with officers who are representing the prison
00:26service.
00:27And I can tell you, we are looking forward to at least one of those boys going on to perhaps
00:31national duties.
00:32Given the skill level that we have seen, the prison now is fourth place in the national competition, the TTFA
00:40highest competition.
00:41And this young player is making a significant contribution to that resolve.
00:47Some of the juveniles have also represented the country on a national level, in boxing and other disciplines.
00:52However, prison officials lament that due to their legal status, many are denied opportunities to further their sporting careers.
01:01Every resident that needs to lead this institution must gain court approval, right?
01:07We have residents in children's court, right?
01:11We have no issues in terms of getting approvals from children's court.
01:15However, we have residents who occupy that twilight zone between children's court, high court, and magistrate's court, right?
01:24And we don't tend to get approvals or responses.
01:27Additionally, while sport is said to be a pathway out of crime, the prison service reports that, in many instances,
01:34crime is a mitigating factor to sport participation.
01:38Because of the proliferation of gangs within the prison system, it is not a situation where young persons are in
01:47a vacuum and trying to improve their performance in any particular discipline.
01:51There are actually persons who are within the institution, who would be members of those gangs, who would be acting
01:59against that.
02:00So in other words, even though the young person individually might be motivated to want to take part in sport,
02:07there could be other persons who are making noise, if one could use that word, to try to prevent them
02:14or to discredit them in terms of that participation.
02:17Because, of course, the concept of gang, that anti-social behavior.
02:22Stakeholders at the meeting informed the JSC of the need to carry out comprehensive data gathering to evaluate the effectiveness
02:30of sporting programs in diverting vulnerable youth from delinquency and criminal activities in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:38Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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