7 News Belize

My Teenaged Son Sent To Jail - And No One Told Me!
posted (July 9, 2020)

For another mother, whose minor aged son was also sent up today, it's a nerve-racking nightmare. And while she too believes that her child's rights have been violated, she is also angry that the cops didn't tell her that they'd put her 17 year old son on lockdown until 36 hours after he was detained.

Shermaine Martinez - Concerned Mother

"Nobody called me miss and that is my thing about this, that is what hurt me the most, nobody called me. When I got that call, when I got that call just now from Belize Central Prison, my child ask somebody to call me and tell me he is at Belize Central Prison, my child will be 17 years old Saturday. I have plans, we have plans, this is not fair, if he was giving trouble, I wouldn't have come and done this but my child is not giving any trouble, he got a little job, a little construction job, he is now working a month and two weeks. Every day he get up and go to work, come home, bathe and go to his girlfriend house. This is what they did to him, I feel like they chance him out of his rights, that's why I'm coming and I want the whole nation to know, who like him and who don't like him, I love him and I don't think it is fair and big, the educated people who is behind all this, I understand we want Belize for te violence to stop and everything but we have good and we have bad miss. We have the good ones that stay good and we have the bad ones that are trying to get better."

Reporter

"To your knowledge, has your son ever committed a crime?"

Shermaine Martinez

"Committed a crime, no ma'am. Life is what you make it. In the past, I always had to get the police involved with him because he was a little boy, they are boys, they do rude things. I am a mother, I'm trying to bring my son the right way. When he was giving trouble, giving me trouble, I didn't have nobody to run to send him to jail or boot camp but now, you are trying to relax, you have a little job. I come here you know because I don't know where to go, you go to the police station, everybody look on you like you are stupid. Go to that one, go to that one, you reach to that one, go to that one, everybody like you know... and that is my thing about it, like I don't know who to go to. So maybe when somebody see me on this interview now, maybe then I can know who to talk to because somebody will contact me and educate me on this."

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