According to Bureau of Public Safety Director Norvert H. Yano, they put the Juvenile Justice on slow recovery as they try to figure out the budget.
“There is no operating budget or funds to hire staff. We are slowly trying to get at least one staff to get JJ started.” Yano said in an interview.
The JJ was managed by only two-woman staff, Elizabeth Oseked, Juvenile System Youth Development specialist and Police officer Margaret Martin. But since Oseked has retired and Martin also resigned, the MOJ has not yet hired personnel to take over the management of the Juvenile Justice.
The work of the JJ is to monitor truant students and for the enforcement, intervention and rehabilitation to protect the rights of children.
What the JJ usually does is to conduct home visitations to investigate cases concerning juvenile abuse. They also conduct counseling and impose community service with youth offenders.
The office has been around since the 1980s, and had a lot of successful programs in the past. During the previous interview with Oseked, she said they used to have a proper office during the past administrations, but when the new administration comes, they were moved to a new office, albeit a temporary one.
The Juvenile Justice’s office was in old Japanese building along Ngerbeched which it shares with the Division of Fish and Wildlife and Bureau of Archives. However, the office had been vacant for months.
With the absence of JJ, Yano said the court and the judiciary branch are the ones dealing with the juvenile delinquents and those who committed major offenses.
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