The first Children’s Custodial Center established under the Juvenile Justice Act, has been opened in the southern city of Fuvahmulah.

In a press release on Thursday, the Maldives Police Service (MPS) revealed that the center was inaugurated by the MP for Hinnavaru constituency and Human Rights and Gender Committee’s Chair, Jeehan Mahmood alongside Fuvahmulah City Mayor Ismail Rafeeg during a special ceremony held on Thursday.

The ceremony to unveil the center was joined by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abdul Mannan Yoosuf as well as executive police officers, senior officials at the Fuvahmulah City Council Secretariat as well as officials of other institutions.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Commissioner of Police Yoosuf noted that 28 years ago when people were put behind bars, there was no differentiating or discriminating between the prisoners and went into further detail on how people used to be locked up at the time.

Yoosuf noted that the what you learn from the manner in which the procedure was done back then is a good lesson for the present times.

He added that if a person committed a criminal offence back then, the person was let go with a warning and that the authorities only forwarded the case for prosecution if they deemed it worthy of charges and if the offence was repeated three times. By doing so, he noted that the number of repeat offences had declined significantly.

Further, he stated that according to the current juvenile justice, system, when a child is brought in for a repeat offence, the child is given counselling, following which their parents are informed of what needs to be done as follow up measures.

However, the deputy commissioner claimed that there was no authority to carry out this practice back then and that he hopes the efforts of the police institution to reduce offences made by children will yield positive results and keep children away from crimes and become productive members of the society.

The Children's Custodial Center inaugurated at Fuvahmulah City features spaces for indoor and outdoor sports as well as a library, classroom and computer lab.