by MICHELLE SPRINGER

LACK OF REASON and bad choices are behind juvenile delinquency.

The opposite might therefore be key to preventing unlawful activity and to reforming young law offenders.

Principal of Garrison School, Matthew Farley, gave this insight as he delivered the feature address at the opening ceremony of the Choices, Behaviours, Consequences eight-day workshop, facilitated by a partnership between the Probation Department and the National Children's Homes (NCH) Action for Children.

He was addressing 25 current juvenile probationers at Frank Collymore Hall during the opening ceremony of the workshop.

"A perusal of the court reports reveals a catalogue of incidents involving teenagers both in and out of school that are indeed acting and behaving in ways that clearly demonstrate the absence of reason and rational thought.

"The fact is that they are thinking first. The reality is that no action or behaviour can take place without being conceived in the mind. Are they considering the consequences of their actions? Are they making the right choices?" the principal queried.

Farley also linked high cases of anti-social and criminal propensities among teenagers to local, popular, music culture and its environment.

"In cases of blatant parental neglect, parents must be held accountable for the deviant behaviour of their charges," he said.

He lauded the Edna Nicholls disciplinary method and called for an expansion of the concept and establishment of a residential boot camp facility for deviant students in the school system.