BVI News

MALE President calls for Juvenile Centre amid rising crime in BVI

Henderson Tittle, the Coordinator of Mentoring Anointed Leaders Everywhere (MALE)

President of Mentoring Anointed Leaders Everywhere (MALE), Henderson Tittle, is calling for the establishment of a juvenile detention and rehabilitation centre in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to help steer troubled young men away from a life of crime.

In an interview with BVI News, Tittle emphasized the urgent need for such an institution, noting that young offenders are currently sent directly to His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) in Balsam Ghut, where they are housed alongside adult criminals.

“There is no established juvenile detention centre here in the community,” Tittle stated. “There needs to be a place where it is mandatory for boys to go when they get in trouble at school or commit crimes before they are sent off to Balsam Ghut with all the grown men up there. It should be a place where they can earn a certificate and learn a skill or trade.”

Tittle expressed his commitment to advocating for the initiative within the BVI community, further highlighting the lack of institutions catering to young men struggling with drug addiction and mental illness. He stressed that crime among youth is often driven by deeper issues such as substance abuse and unemployment, which need to be addressed through structured intervention.

His concerns align with recent warnings from the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) regarding the rise in gang-related violence. In November 2024, the RVIPF flagged the activities of a group known as the “Money Boys,” citing their involvement in escalating crime rates. According to the police force, overall crime has increased by 12 percent, with gun violence emerging as a serious threat.

In response to this alarming trend, Tittle has urged a unified community effort to combat youth delinquency. His organization, MALE, currently mentors seventy young men, with approximately five being court-mandated and several others referred by schools due to behavioral issues.

As crime concerns grow in the territory, Tittle’s call for a dedicated juvenile facility adds to the ongoing dialogue about the need for systemic solutions to support at-risk youth and curb criminal activity in the BVI.

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15 Comments

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  1. Hmmm says:

    The virgin islands party don’t care to create positive programs for the troubled youth of the bvi. They does look down on ppl children.

    • Po We says:

      Garbage in Garbage out.
      Building “up”these BVI with and from the worse of the Caribbean stock makes for a demonstration of self destruct and common factor of the melanated blame the Whyte man syndrome. Their US thousands of deported will be trickling in and joining their bros. Wear what you buy and praise the Lord. Satan peeping!

      Like 5
      Dislike 2
  2. about time says:

    Turth is crime is glorified here. It starts with the adults.

  3. Question. says:

    Who’s anointing them?

    a·noint

    [əˈnoint]

    verb

    smear or rub with oil, typically as part of a religious ceremony:

    ceremonially confer divine or holy office upon (a priest or monarch) by smearing or rubbing with oil:

  4. EV says:

    The youths are not troubled in the true meaning of the word, they are instead exhibiting the trauma, and maladies of society’s exclusion from financial, emotional, jobs and upward mobility opportunity experiences.

    Like many other societal issues, there is a profound mal practice of mis-diagnosis surrounding them, and an unwillingness, fuelled by greed, to make the necessary changes that will transform lives and society.

  5. Mathew 7: 6 says:

    Matthew 7:6

    Do not give that which is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before swine lest they trample them under foot and turn and tear you to pieces.

    BVI full speed ahead ongoing degradation is a self inflicted misery. A reflection of a lack of self worth.

    With some luck,it will sink,wash away and be done with..

  6. Please says:

    The BVI haters trying to invoke scripture to see/usher in the demise of these wonderful islands, my home for centuries before there was a migrant, much less an ungrateful hateful one, both white and Black.

  7. wellsah says:

    how about a juvenile detention centre then

  8. concerned says:

    I don’t know if he knows, but all the research shows that locking kids up teaches them how to be better criminals rather than rehabilitate them. In addition, the costs of locking kids up is higher than that of adults because they are still kids. What they should be calling for are programs that positively engages the young people and their families. That is a better use of taxpayers dollars.

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  9. @concerned says:

    Castration will be effective and without the cost of holding cells.
    Birth control is not a practice. Two parent households are no longer fashionable.

  10. save deh youths! says:

    At least somone is trying

    i appreciate this man and his M.A.L.E organization as anything is better than doing ntn

    save deh youths! or will reap what we sow in the next 10yrs

  11. Pyro says:

    So what use are the community centers if they aren’t being utilized for community programs such as this? We build them and then they sit idle, under-utilized and then fall into dereliction.

    Can someone from Social Development and/or the Ministry of Health please sign an MOU with MALE for such? Why do we have to build more structures that will not be used for their intended purposes?

  12. Parents drop the ball says:

    When children at their young age are left with devices to train them or when their devices are taken away and they throw tantrums and parents shove back the devices to quiet them

    2. Having your young ones not teaching them to take responsibility like washing, cooking, cleaning
    where and around their surroundings

    3. Having them looking up in their rooms on gadgets all night
    4. Parents cheating on each other and cursing and swearing in front of their children
    5. Father sitting down at bars all night and leaving mothers to raise their children
    6. Leaving them to walk in and out of your home as soon as they hit high school
    7. Sending them to church and staying home to sleep
    8 Upset with their teachers for disciplinary actions and ill speaking them in the presence of teachers

    Grow this society with social ills than it can handleb

  13. hmm says:

    the opportunities a lot of young people would have had to work a lil small job while going HLSCC or something not there now because we allowing everybody to import a Filipino to work. Our government has turned issuing work permits into a business Now you wonder why the youths idle and getting into trouble. The street life not asking them for 3-5 years experience to join and it paying better.

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