Dealing with juvenile offenders
The whole approach needs to be changed
IF the incidence of under-trial prisoners languishing in jail indefinitely is an abysmal travesty of justice, then that of juvenile crime suspects detained in jail would be patently repugnant to all civilised sensibilities. It is the worst form of violation of human rights because it impinges on the rights of the most helpless segment of the society, namely, the under-aged children.
What image of the country gets reflected when a baby hanging on to the shoulder of a parent is presented as an accused before a judge expressly hugely embarrassed at the sight! Newspaper reports of such absurdities have not been few and far between and the judges taking due note of them ordering them to be released.
But when it comes to some 412 juvenile suspects still detained in various prisons of the country it seems a good deal needs to be done to safeguard child rights. And a question of rights it is, in a deeper sense, when in the virtual company of hardcore criminals, they run the risk of not just being physically abused but also being exposed to all sorts of pernicious influences turning them into real criminal converts.
Thus, the standard practice is to send child offenders to juvenile development centres where they have the opportunities for correction, imbibing right motivation and receiving skill training and healthcare. If the fact that we do not have an adequate number of such centres is advanced as an excuse for keeping them in custody, it makes the insensitivity far more culpable.
The interactive session organised by the Social Welfare Directorate on 'Transferring Detained Children from Prisons to Facilities under the Directorate of Social Welfare' last week produced some useful suggestions. We endorse them. The first priority, of course, should be accorded to instilling respect for child rights in the minds of law enforcers. When the police arrest a juvenile their first port of call should be the social welfare directorate or the office of the deputy commissioner. If the offence is serious they should procure a court order for sending the accused to a development centre or safe home. The court, of course, has the discretion to send under-aged criminals to juvenile development centres directly. The police mustn't, under any circumstances, deliberately or negligently, in their forwarding report to the court, mention the offender as an adult. If they do so, they ought to be held to account.
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