CNN Insight report on Kids in jail and the rescue work of Preda
to free them
INSIGHT
Children in Prison
Aired August 10, 2005 - 23:00:00 ET
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST (voice-over): As many as 20,000 children are
behind bars in the Philippines right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If we were treated well and cared for by our parents, we would not become like this. Just like you were cared for well by your parents, that explains what you are now. If we had been treated like you, we would not become thieves.
CHURCH: Roughly 28 children are arrested every day, more than one child every hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Hello and welcome. I'm Rosemary Church.
Well, according to Amnesty International, over 50,000 children in the Philippines have been arrested and detained since 1995. And as Chris Rogers reports, torture, rape and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment are a part of every day life for those children while they're incarcerated.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS ROGERS, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 13-year-old Edwin, just one of 20,000 children behind bars. Some guilty of petty crimes, others guilty of nothing, homeless and unwanted, denied their human rights. Locked up in adult, overcrowded jails, open to abuse. Sharing bed with pedophiles.
This is the evil in Philippine jails the world wasn't meant to see.
To gather our evidence, we went undercover with a team of charity workers bringing help to inmates, claiming to document urgent cases on camera. We were welcomed to a hell on earth. Adult cells crammed full of bodies and disease.
This prison's warden told me he barely had the resources to keep the inmates alive.
It's a college of crime for child prisoners. There are too few social workers to help them, not enough courts to put them in trial.
(on camera): Imagine sticking your head inside a fully-heated oven that stinks of urine and body odor, and that's pretty much what we're experiencing here in this jail. We've only been here half an hour and it's absolutely unbearable. Imagine being here for a month, like Osama has.
(voice-over): The 13-year-old is accused of stealing a necklace.\
Catholic missionary Shay Cullen has decided to dedicate his life to helping these vulnerable prisoners. He brought us to a jail he's particularly concerned about, where we found the true horrors of mixed cells.
At this prison, teenaged boys are locked up with sexual offenders. One giggled as he told us he had a special relationship with the boys. Another says he was in charge.
(on camera): What is going on?
FATHER SHAY CULLEN, CATHOLIC MISSIONARY: It's difficult to see, really, but it would seem that there is a lot of men here who will have a great interest in the boys, maybe they have some pedophile instincts.
ROGERS (voice-over): Shay's inspiration for his work comes from 5- year-old Rose. He discovered her sipping a typical childhood treat of cola in a cramped prison cell.
The missionary's grim discoveries never end. Kareem is 11, charged with the pettiest of crimes, imprisoned with 200 of the most wanted, included murderers and alleged terrorists. Kareem is petrified.
In another jail, 14-year-old Alpi (ph) told us his back is rotting. This is what happens when you sleep on a dirty floor.
Manmi (ph) sleeps on a makeshift bed like the one he had on the streets.
"They feed me and I have friends here. It's better than being on the streets," he told me.
How can a child think jail is better than life on the streets? We searched for more children like Manmi (ph) in the city slums.
Under a bridge, we found a community of orphaned and abandoned children. They sniff glue to heal the pain of homelessness and numb the fear of police abuse.
Last week, Jim Boy, who is just 10, managed to escape from prison. He said it was OK for a while because the food was good, but the police beat him so he ran away.
While we filmed, a patrol car sped by. They suddenly scurried up a sewer pipe, a well rehearsed escape.
Children aren't just treated like rubbish, they live off of it. On the city dumps, families search for food and junk to sell.
(on camera): There are dozens of communities like this across the Philippines and it makes you wonder, if free people end up living and working in conditions like this, how can you expect imprisoned people to be found in decent, humane conditions in jails? It's also hardly surprising why children turn to crime to try to make a living.
(voice-over): But 13-year-old Edwin knows there is a high price to pay. Four months of prison life has scarred him physically and mentally. While we were filming, Edwin learned Father Shay Cullen wants to rescue him. He is demanding his release, demanding justice. It's an agonizing wait for Edwin, but a single ray of hope in his miserable existence.
Today we take you on a journey only a handful of child prisoners ever make, a journey to freedom. To a place where there is a chance for childhood and opportunity rather than abuse and disease. Where, through therapy, their cries for help are heard, not ignored.
13-year-old Edwin has a real chance of making that journey, but there is only one man that can help him.
Catholic missionary Shay Cullen is searching for children arrested overnight for petty crimes. 150 are thrown into adult, overcrowded jails every day where they spent months waiting for justice.
13-year-old Edwin has been in this adult cell for four months awaiting trial for stealing flip flops. Father Shay's child rescue team are going in, armed with a court order to release Edwin into their care. We filmed undercover as part of the team about to end Edwin's misery.
Edwin told us the police beat him on the head with their guns. "All the children here look out for each other," he says. He's also developed scabies.
(on camera): As you speak to some of these children, you begin to (AUDIO GAP) poverty and crime ends and a chance at childhood begins.
He leaves behind other child prisoners he can't help right now, all hoping it will be their rescue next time.
(voice-over): The Prada Center is just 100 miles from the city jails where they've rescued over 50 children, but a million worlds away. But before Prada can begin to give them back their childhood, they must first deal with their emotional scars.
In a padded, dimly lit room, they're encouraged to let out their anger, sadness and fears from imprisonment. Already, Edwin shows the signs of a deeply troubled child. For each scream, each tear, there is a horrific story.
12-year-old Jamie was cleared of theft after seven months in jail. He told me the adult inmates always asked him for sexual favors. "We were beaten when we refused," he says.
Fiar (ph) was a street kid. He says he ate pig food and the cell flooded when it rained. "I was almost sexually abused," he told me, "but I fought them off."
Until now, these children were too unloved to let their experiences go. Now they also have a chance for a proper education and, more importantly, freedom. There are no prison bars, barbed wire or overcrowded cells.
CULLEN: They stay. These are kids who have been in prison, you'd expect them all to have escaped by now. We took a risk at the beginning. We weren't sure how this would work. But, you know, by just showing them respect, decency, friendship, security, helping them with their court case, getting them out of those filthy dungeons, you know, they have a new start.
ROGERS: But, of course, thousands of children still face another day in a crowded, filthy cell while Edwin builds his first sandcastle. Prada hope our films can be used as evidence to put pressure on the Philippine government and perhaps put the right people behind bars.
Chris Rogers, ITV News, Manila.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: We're going to take a break now. When we come back, we'll hear what the Philippine government has to say about the situation.
Do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
