Both government members and top law enforcement officials admitted Thursday that a 2006 report identifying the “seeds of criminality” in the Cayman Islands has largely sat on the shelf for the past three-and-a-half years, with little or no action taken on the recommendations it contains.

Now, those seeds have germinated, according to Community Affairs Minister Mike Adam.

“We are creating…marginalised and disadvantaged children who grow up to be marginalised and disadvantaged adults,” Mr. Adam said at the start of a two-day retreat held to study the 2006 report done by Barbadian criminologist Yolande Forde and hopefully implement some of its recommendations. “We cannot afford to lose one more of our youth to the streets in this small population.”

Attorney General Sam Bulgin admitted that government had not made the recommendations contained in the criminality report a top priority over the past few years as it struggled with issues like a fading economy and revising Cayman’s constitutional agreement with the United Kingdom. Mr. Bulgin said recent law enforcement regimes here have been far too reactive.

“We have been preoccupied with how to solve crime rather than paying attention to early intervention issues,” Mr. Bulgin said.

The 2006 Forde report surveyed a sample number of male prisoners at Northward and the juvenile detention facility at Eagle House. It aimed to root out the underlying causes of criminal behaviour in the Cayman Islands.

According to the study, some 47 per cent of prisoners indicated they had been born to teenage mothers and many indicated they had grown up in dysfunctional homes. Also, the study found that many had performed poorly at school, never learning to read or write.

The report also identified a major failing of the Cayman Islands educational system in that it employed “social promotion” – the practice of passing students through the grades based on age, not merit.

“These individuals would go into the workplace and expect promotion and reward on that same basis and, generally, that is a false expectation,” Mrs. Forde wrote in her report.

Cayman’s public education system still practices the policy of social promotion.

A full 64 per cent of inmates surveyed stated they had been either suspended or expelled from school; 60 per cent said they had not graduated from high school.

Kids in the Cayman Islands are getting into trouble at a younger age, according to Royal Cayman Islands Police Inspector Anthony White.

“The percentage of juvenile arrests proportionate to total arrest figures have grown,” Mr. White said Thursday during his presentation to the retreat.

In addition, Inspector White said offences committed by juveniles (those under 17 in Cayman Islands law) are not longer simply just staying out late at night, or drinking a beer before they turn 18.

These days, the four most common offences committed by juveniles in the court system are drug-related crimes, assaults, thefts and burglaries.

Inspector White also noted that more than 41 per cent of the unemployed population in Cayman consists of people who are between 15-24 years old. While he admits that’s not unusual in most societies, that figure is of concern to Cayman.

There is hope, according to Mr. White, who said the “80-20 rule” is still in effect for the Cayman Islands. That means roughly 80 per cent of those children who do come before the juvenile court system typically don’t re-offend.

“It’s the other 20 per cent we are looking at in this retreat,” Mr. White said.

Participants in the retreat were scheduled to meet through Friday, breaking up into five separate study groups dealing with family, social, religious, education, and criminal justice issues.