juvenile incarceration now''.

Thirteen-year-olds had been sent to the prison farm, the Coalition claimed.

And juvenile offenders had even been sent to Casemates, the Island's maximum security prison.

"What psychological devastation this causes to the young person?'' Government had failed to keep its promise to put an end to the practice, said Mrs. Cecile Musson Smith, who also sits on the Juvenile and Domestic Court Panel.

Health and Social Service Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness had said in the last session of Parliament that juveniles would no longer be put in prison, she pointed out.

"Those promises remain unkept because a secure place for juvenile offenders has not been designated,'' she said. "If it has been designated, it is being kept a secret.'' But Mr. Edness this week said Government fully intended to keep its promise -- as soon as funds were available for a secure alternative facility.

Meanwhile, the only children under 16 being sent to the Co-Ed Facility prison farm were youngsters with severe behavioural problems, he said.

They needed to be protected from themselves through drug abuse, and prevented from harming others, he said. And they were only held at the Co-Ed Facility on a temporary basis.

The homes Government currently had available for juvenile delinquents were not secure enough, he said.

"Government has made a decision that there will be a secure residential facility for children with serious behavioural problems,'' he said. "I believe the funds will be made available in the next Budget.'' He added that as far as he knew no young person had been sent to Casemates.

There may have been an 18-year-old on remand there, he said, but that was all.

But Mrs. Musson Smith said: "The Minister has the power, and has exerted it, to send juveniles to prison. Even after the chairman of the Juvenile Panel, the Magistrate, and other panel members have requested probation for the juvenile or an approved society, meaning one of the residential facilities.

"And yes, under-agers have even gone to Casemates -- albeit temporarily...

More horrible than all though,'' she claimed, "is that juveniles have been kept locked up until older and then tried under more punitive law. Some juveniles in the past have been jailed as long as three years!'' Those youngsters had lost out on their education, spiritual guidance, relationships. "And what worse time than age 13 and over, when puberty must be wrestled with? Where is this non-adult secure place for juveniles?'' Mr. Edness said he did not agree either with sending juveniles to jail, but he had no control over the courts.

"The whole system of how the courts deal with young offenders needed to be reviewed,'' he said. Such a review would take place, he promised.