One of the founding principles behind the Conscious Youth Development Programme
is offering legal alternatives to a life of crime - that means finding productive
labour for at risk youth. It’s a common-sensical approach, but does it
work? No one knows for sure, but a recent Swiss study in Trinidad found that
the money drawn from this work was only enabling criminals to further their
lives in crime: in other words, the money from the legitimate jobs were sponsoring
lives of crime.
We can’t say if that’s what happened in the case of thirty two
year old Anthony Morris Jr., a supervisor at CYDP who was in court yesterday
after police found him in possession of a number of stolen items from Universal
Hardware. Owner Corny Dueck reported that the burglary happened on Thursday,
February fourth at the hardware store located on New Road.
Police officers assigned to the CYDP received intelligence that led them to
Anthony Morris Jr. who police claim was found with a number of stolen items
valued at four thousand, eight hundred and seventy dollars including one circular
electrical saw, one four stroke British cutter, one cordless hammer drill and
one straight shaft trimmer.
.
When he appeared in Magistrate’s Court number seven Morris was arraigned
on the charges of a mischievous act after he allegedly gave police an initial
false statement. The other charges include two counts of handling stolen goods.
Morris Jr. pleaded not guilty and was released on three thousand dollars bail
and the case has been adjourned until March eighteenth. Two more stolen items
that were not recovered are a pellet gun and three boxes of pellets.
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