What’s Up at Princess Royal Youth Hostel

The situation at the Princess Royal Youth Hostel remains volatile where a number of young girls have been involved in unrest at the facility since August tenth. On that Saturday night, as many as eleven of them broke out of the shelter and escaped to various parts of the country before being recaptured sometime thereafter. One week later, another group of teenagers absconded from the hostel following an altercation with personnel on the ground. During that incident a police vehicle was damaged when the girls began throwing rocks at the officers. It is reported that there was another disruption at the facility on Wednesday night and notwithstanding an attempt by the Belize Police Department to work closely with the administration and staff of the Princess Royal Youth Hostel, the issue of unease remains a serious problem.

On the phone: Maureen Williams, Deputy Director, Community Rehabilitation Department

“As you know, I mean this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened and so we are constantly looking at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.  It’s not an easy task because we are dealing with children, we are dealing with human beings, we are dealing with different personalities.  We are dealing with a myriad of issues, the youth hostel was originally designed for children with behavioral issues but as it stands now it is a psychiatric unit, it’s a childcare center, it’s a remand center, it’s a juvenile detention facility.  So we’re dealing with lots of children with different needs and so we are always trying to figure out what else.  What else do we need to do?”