Rescued Not Condemned
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
It was a happy day last
week when the passenger van arrived from the prisons of Malabon and
Navotas in Metro Manila and five young boys stepped down nervously and
looked about in wonder. They stared in silence at the panoramic view of
Subic Bay as a red fireball of a setting sun lit the sky like a beacon
of hope and salvation as it peacefully sank behind the distant Mountain
range of San Antonio. They had arrived at the PREDA Home for “Youth in
Conflict with the Law” a safe haven from the cruel detention with
abusers and criminals. Then a few days later another four arrived.
Many months of
determined lobbying and legal action opened a window through which they
slipped out of the unforgiving legal system that allows children to be
jailed with adult criminals in the Philippines.
The beautiful sunset
across the bay was a dramatic change from the fetid unventilated over
crowded prison cells filled to capacity with adults and criminals. I
have been there many times and never failed to feel nauseated and
wanting to throw up as much at the injustice and inhumanity. These boys
that were rescued are as young as 12 years. I say rescued because many
are victims of human rights violations and illegal detention. Within
days our social workers were back with some of them in the court to help
resolve the charges against them. Two were provisionally dismissed. The
oppressive system was melting with a bit of compassion when we had found
a judge with a heart.
Thousands of minors,
mostly boys, are jailed in suffocating conditions for misdemeanours.
Carefully documented, investigations show many have been being beaten,
kicked, handcuffed and cursed by police and vigilante neighbourhood
patrols before thrown in the dark dungeons without light or proper
toilets or showers. The abuse persists today as they rot in prisons,
their young lives wasting aimlessly in these schools of criminals. No
wonder the Philippines has one of the highest crime rates in South East
Asia. Their right’s to a lawyer, a social worker and medical exam is
usually denied. They languish in the holding cell hungry, unwashed and
without their families being informed and no one to bring them clothes
or food. Later they are illegally transferred to the prison instead of a
youth detention center as the law states.
Only a few facilities exist to care for the youth
offenders and many more are needed. Some of the children are only eleven
years old and have committed no serious crime but are homeless, glue
sniffers, or petty thieves. They are sexually abused with the adults in
the overcrowd prison cells where not all can even lie down in the
concrete floor at the same time. We can change this injustice. We will
succeed in rescuing more in the weeks ahead.
Restorative Justice is a
way of seeing dignity and goodness in the young people as Jesus saw in
everybody. This understanding and non-judgmental attitude does not
condemn and punish, it gives affirmation hope and a real chance for a
decent life. These youths are now happily studying, playing basketball,
swimming and earning pocket money doing occupational therapy projects.
It’s a new life for those once condemned as sinners and outcasts.
In the scripture reading
today an unfortunate woman was dragged like a criminal before Jesus to
be judged and condemned without any respect for her human dignity. At
least that’s what the self-righteous temple official wanted and they
planned to trap Jesus into condemning her and had he refused they would
condemn him as an outcast for breaking the Law of Moses.
But filled with
compassion understanding and forgiveness for the accused, Jesus avoided
their trap and out maneuvered them and asked them if they were so
perfect as to be without fault. They had no answer to that and ashamed
at their own sins dropped their stones and left. Jesus pardoned the
woman and saved her for a vicious death.
Thank God for the love and compassion that Jesus brought into the world. What a vicious condemnatory and cruel world it would be without Him.
