Garbage removal proposed as alternative sentencing

A section of Her Majesty’s Prison

A resident has told a panel of government ministers in the British Virgin Islands to consider amending the necessary legislation so that young people who run afoul of the law are made to clean the streets as an alternative sentence instead of being sent to prison.

He made the suggestion this week while lamenting that too many areas around the territory are untidy.

“The youngsters that you don’t want to go into the prison, you make a law for them in probation. Put them to clean the Districts for the two years, and put somebody to watch over them; that’s their punishment,” the resident told a NDP Radio panel comprising Premier Dr D Orlando Smith and his Cabinet ministers.

Simply hiring people to “pick up” garbage along the roadway is not enough, added the resident, who did not disclose his name. He said proper cleansing is needed, and a barrow and a broom should be incorporated as tools of the trade.

“We need to have some guys with a barrow and a broom cleaning like long time where the District used to get clean. This picking up [garbage] is not doing anything. We had a young man from Long Bush in Purcell doing a very good job cleaning the place and they move the young guy. We need to go back into the old time because the Districts would get clean that way. That’s where we need to put them (young offenders). Instead of locking them up, you give them the barrow and a broom to clean the Districts,” the resident further said.

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