Happy Birthday?
By Roger Bill
Last week Robert Belbin celebrated his 23rd birthday. Sort of, if “celebrating” means the guards at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary give you a piece of cake from the kitchen.
Remember Robert Belbin? He is one of the young men the RNC believes was part of a “criminal network” behind a rash of shootings in St. John’s two years ago. He was charged following a fight with another young man, Thomas Barnes, on George Street on the May 24th weekend in 2022.
Robert Belbin was charged with stabbing Barnes, but at the trial the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary offered no evidence that Belbin stabbed anyone. Provincial Court Judge James Walsh eventually found Robert Belbin guilty of a common assault, but that isn’t the reason he is sleeping in a cell in a rat-infested prison today.
Robert Belbin is awaiting trial on charges of illegally possessing firearms plus the murder of a 22-year-old man, Seamus Secord, in February of 2023. An application for bail has been denied.
Until a gardening program was recently started at HMP, Robert Belbin was rarely outside. He likes to read, but the library at HMP was closed during Covid and it remains closed. He finished Grade 11 and would like to finish high school, but no courses are offered at HMP for young inmates like Robert Belbin.
According to the Department of Justice and Public Safety, “The library inside Her Majesty’s Penitentiary is run by volunteers associated with the John Howard Society. While the library is scheduled to be open once a week, staff shortages have led to cancellations of the regular library service. Adult Custody Division contracts qualified teachers to provide education services in correctional facilities across the province. Services provided include Adult Basic Education, literacy skills and GED preparation support. Disruptions in this service have occurred during the past year due to staff shortages, as well as an unexpected vacancy of a contractual teacher. Efforts are underway to fill the teacher position with the goal of having this service reinstated in the coming months.”
The Department also says its 2024/25 budget includes additional personnel for HMP and other correctional services. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice and Public Safety is competing for personnel in a market where the Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development (CSSD) is trying to fill over a hundred social work vacancies.
A hundred missing social workers means shortages in the area of child protection. It means shortages in meeting the needs of children who are described as having, “complex needs.” For example, CBC reporters Rob Antle and Arianna Kelland recently highlighted the weaknesses in a CSSD program to care for children in group homes and what are called “individual living arrangements.”
The CBC reported that according to a 2017 provincial study, three quarters of children in staffed group homes have “poor educational outcomes.” Translated that means they don’t finish high school. Plus, though the provincial government keeps no statistics, it is not uncommon for the kids with “poor educational outcomes” to find their way into the criminal justice system.
What does that have to do with Robert Belbin? When he was 16, Robert Belbin was a kid with “complex needs.” His home life was tumultuous. He wasn’t placed in a staffed group home. Robert Belbin was placed in an apartment on Topsail Road, what government calls an “individual living arrangement.” It doesn’t appear to have worked very well. Following the May 24th fight on George Street, the apartment on Topsail Road was the target of a drive-by shooting.