By Leonard GildarieLast week, I visited Essequibo for the Ministry of the Presidency’s outreach to residents there.Leonard GildarieAt Perth, a scenic little community that may be more known for being a seaside rice village than anything else, a woman insisted that she speak with Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.She claimed that a young girl was being imprisoned in hellish conditions at her Richmond home, a community not far away. She demanded action.The police and medical workers raced down to the home. The mother claimed that she had sought help her for the girl,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, who is reportedly 26 years old. She said her daughter was mentally ill, and that a rapist had been attacking the home frequently.The home had wooden bars nailed on the windows. Inside, the girl was locked up in a room secured by a wooden door that had a square hole cut into it- for food to be passed through and maybe for viewing.To say that the conditions that the girl (I use the word girl loosely) was living under was horrible, unfit for a human, would a gross understatement. It was filthy with excrement and maggots.The mother,Wholesale MLB Jerseys, with tears in her eyes, told reporters that she had sought help for her daughter. She also claimed that her daughter was consistently raped by a person who lives not far away and that police would arrest him,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, but little came out of the complaints.Needless to say, neighbours disagreed with her story and said she would leave her daughter alone at nights and sleep elsewhere.I have a daughter who is seven. I fear for her. We don’t ever leave her alone,Cheap NFL Jerseys, period.I was looking at the woman and it appeared to me that she could not comprehend the enormity of her problem.Where were the neighbours all the time? Where was the police? Where were social services or the regional officials? It is my understanding that the region has workers for situations like these.Richmond is a quiet neighbourhood on the Essequibo coast. Surely the daughter could have been taken away for better care. I fully understand that woman when she said it is her daughter and nobody can put themselves in her shoes. I could not but help conclude that she too was a victim of our system. That maybe the mother needs as much help as her daughter.The police, I was told,Wholesale Jerseys, was looking into the situation. People have been calling for the mother to be charged. I say that would be a travesty. Rather, I would strongly urge that the mother undergo help for her mental state.Did the system fail? One would first have to assume that it worked in the first place. Social services play a key role in Guyana. You cannot preach hunger to someone when you have never experienced it. Likewise, the situation has to be taken into context. I stop here on this issue.In recent times, we have been receiving complaints about magistrates sending seemingly mentally challenged persons, who live on the streets, to jail for crimes.The persons are, for the most part, unrepresented in court, and it would appear to be just another case.I know of reporters who have conducted interviews with some of the city’s homeless. Some of them want to talk. They are far from “mad”. But quite a few clearly have problems. Whether it is a product of the street life or previous circumstances, I have no idea.What I do know is that bringing our homeless people, who may be mentally unfit, to the courts for crimes committed,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, and charging them and sending them to jail, is not helping the situation.The first red flag to the magistrate and court officials would be the address of the person charged – no fixed place of abode.When you charge someone, they have to understand the gravity of the crime. They must know that there are penalties and will have to face the music if found guilty.If they don’t know and you are sending them to jail, what kind of reform are you expecting from that person who in the first instance does not understand?I am sure the hands of the magistrate, based on the law, are tied, if he or she finds the person guilty. The law is clear when it comes to penalties.Here is the problem. We are sending mentally-ill persons to jail and feeding those persons for months, sometimes years. We are spending monies to secure and feed them both inside and outside of the jail system. They come back out and resume the same old life.It is tough on the streets. It is a struggle for survival.The mental state of our people would be critical in coming years as this country strives for first world status. We can no longer afford to laugh or turn our faces. Where are the social services in all