Back To The Dark Ages, Still Jailing Children

When I asked 13 year old Jonathan to draw a picture of himself in jail he drew a stick like figure of a small boy hanging half way up the bars of a prison cell. Behind him a bigger figure was hitting him with a stick. That was his punishment every time he fell asleep when ordered by the cell boss to guard his cell phone and stash of drugs at night in the overcrowded cell. He was too ashamed to draw a picture of himself as a "girly-boy”. He was sexually molested by the older prisoners.

That ended for many but not all children when Republic Act 9344 was passed in 2006 that forbade the jailing of children 15 and below and providing restorative justice and alternatives to prison. Enlightened judges released many children to the Preda children's homes while their cases were pending before the courts. Almost all the charges brought by the police against the children referred to the homes have been dismissed establishing that there was no crime committed in the first place and so their detention was unjustified and harmful to the child.

Congressmen Mauricio Domogan of Baguio and Salvador Escudero III of the 1st District of Sorsogon have filed bills to repeal RA 9344 and set the age of criminal liability at 9 years of age.

If Senator Chiz Escudero files his bill to support his father's bill in the congress then you can expect to see many more young malnourished wafts and orphans 9 years and older staring out from behind steel bars in fear of a beating by a guard or a cell boss, or being raped by older prisoners. New legislation ought to help children in conflict with the law and establish children's homes instead of prison cells. The proposed amendments to the law will, in effect, condemn thousands of children to a degrading and frightening experience behind bars filled with pain, hardship and life threatening diseases. They are mostly abandoned and poor and unable to pay bail.

Many street children are arrested on a pretext so the police can meet a weekly arrest quota. Other police claim that the children are used by criminal syndicates. Unfortunately the police are unable to catch and jail the real criminals just the innocent children and claim "Mission accomplished".

The children behind bars in filthy over-crowded, mosquito ridden cells are filled with bewilderment, pain and hunger. They are the throwaway children, lost lives, wasted human beings. They will be corrupted in the colleges of crime with other hardened criminals.

Besides they will be exposed to malnutrition, abandonment, abuse, torture and exploitation. The evidence of this is seen in the drawings and testimonies of the children rescued and released from jails and detention centers. It is damming evidence of abuse and torture and the daily violation of their human rights. www.preda.org

Congressmen and women senators all, please think of this when you come to deliberate and vote on these bills. I strongly suggest that make a surprise unannounced visit to the jails and detention centers especially the ones that bar visitors and social workers and see the subhuman conditions for yourselves, animals live better. Pass a law that mandates all youth detention centers be open to visits by social workers of accredited non-government child care agencies. At present they are barred there is so much to hide.

What we need is more rehabilitation homes, where the children can be given affirmation, care, food, education and values formation, play and friendship. These children will recover and lead a life of decency and respect for the law and society if they are treated with respect and given a sense of personal dignity.

It has been proven beyond doubt by the experience of the open homes there is no need for jail cells, fences, guards and punishment. We have shown that 90% will stay in the formation home if they are respected, supported supplied their basic needs and rights and treated well so that they feel they belong and are wanted. No need to change the present law just the medieval mentality that jails children.