Alternatives To Jail Sought For Kids
The Universe
(January 01, 2006)
A CHILD rights group asked today ((January 7) the Philippine
Department of Justice to divert children under arrest to social workers or their
community during inquest “rather than hauling them off to jail to suffer from
dehumanization and trauma.”
The Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative
Justice—composed of 25 organizations and concerned individuals
nationwide—presented an appeal by concerned citizens to Justice Acting Secretary
Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez to enforce Section 8 of the Rules and Regulations on
the Apprehension, Investigation, Prosecution, and Rehabilitation of Youth
Offenders diverting children upon arrest to the custody of social workers or
responsible community members.
They asked Gutierrez to issue a circular requiring prosecutors “to divert children age 10 to 14 to the custody of their parents and legal guardians and those age 15 and above to the care of DSWD” during inquest proceedings meant to determine the legality of the children’s arrest without warrant.
Virtually all children prisoners—including street urchins, child laborers, those
with mental disabilities, and prostituted girls—were arrested without a warrant.
The group demanded that kids charged with victimless crimes like vagrancy,
solvent-sniffing or illegal gambling be released immediately to the custody of
their next-of-kin or charitable institutions.
Justice that heals
The group urged the justice department to adopt “a humane,
child-sensitive, and human rights-oriented alternative to child detention
pursuant to the principles of restorative justice.”
They pointed out that the youth need a “form of justice
that heals and seeks to identify, address, and eradicate the root causes of the
perceived criminal behavior of children.”
They sought “to involve the family and the community in
crime prevention and non-recurrence” as well as to “repair the harm that has
been done and indemnify the victim.”
Diverting children to their community or social
workers—they pointed out—would also address “the problem of jail congestion,
overworked social workers, understaffed DSWD, BJMP, and PNP offices, lack of
adequate facilities, and absence of budgetary allotment for children prisoners.”
Inhumane treatment
“The findings of United Nations experts”—they said—“have
already shown that subjecting children to contact with the criminal justice
system only exposes them to the virus of criminality as well as ingrains in them
a deep sense of social antipathy and rebelliousness against authority.”
“After suffering from prolonged detention occasioned by the
snail-paced administration of justice—aggravated by child insensitive judicial
players and retributive laws,” the group stressed, “children prisoners who
metamorphose into hardened individuals because of this insidious child rights
violation suffer from social stigma and ostracism.”
“What is widely considered as the cure therefore is even
worse than the perceived problem of supposedly criminal behavior among the young
who need our guidance and love,” they added.
Signatories to the petition include DSWD Undersecretaries
Lourdes Balanon and Ruth Layug as well as Unicef regional officer Albert Muyot.
Fr. Anthony J. Ranada, Fr. Shay Cullen, and other priests
from the Missionaries of Jesus, Society of Jesus, and Claretian
Missionaries also signed the petition. Makati Regional Trial Court Judge
Santiago J. Ranada Jr. was the lone judge who signed the petition.
A nine-year old boy, Felipe Lozada, was the youngest
signatory.
The group condemned “the judicial practice of subjecting
children prisoners to prolonged detention pending the conduct of protracted
court proceedings.”
Prolonged judicial detention, they demanded, “should
likewise be criminalized for contravening the best interest of the child
principle.”
By turning over arrested children to the custody of social workers or their
community, “a number of children would be saved and spared from further
brutality occasioned by their illegal detention in cramped police jails in the
company of adult prisoners during which children get tattooed, tortured, or
raped,” they said.
They expressed concern that “children get arrested and illegally detained at
congested police jails together with adults over long periods without access to
legal, medical, social, and psychological assistance and services.”
Increasing number of jailed kids
At least 36 children get detained everyday, based on statistics of the Public
Attorney’s Office who handled 13,300 cases involving kids accused of crimes in
2002.
“We are deeply concerned over this continuing human rights violation perpetrated
against our voiceless children, especially in light of the fact that the turn of
the century witnessed the growing number of children in conflict with the law,”
the signatories said.
Citing DSWD statistics, the group said that during the first quarter of 2003
alone, 4,544 kids—consisting of 4,103 boys and 441 girls—from all over the
country have been jailed. Bureau of Jail Management and Penology statistics also
show that 2,039 kids have been imprisoned as of September 2003—including 473 who
have been charged with theft and 384 others with robbery. At least 316 kids were
incarcerated for alleged violation of the 2002 Comprehensive Drugs Act (RA
9165).
Illegal police practice
“Police child detention,” the signatories protested, “stands as the official
norm, notwithstanding the fact that the law prohibits police child detention and
mandates that a child `from the time of his arrest be committed to the care of
the Department of Social Welfare.’”
“Police child detention itself should be criminalized pursuant to the letter and
spirit of the Special Child Protection Act or RA 7610,” they averred.
“Nothing could be more inimical to the psychological, emotional, social, and
holistic development and well-being of children other than incarcerating them
over long periods of time under sub-human conditions,” they said.
Jailing children with adults “also contravenes the law against the infliction of
any form of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment,” they
stressed. The practice, they argued, is prohibited under the 1987 Constitution,
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The initiative, aimed at benefiting “thousands of children
of the generations to come,” they said, is “welcomed by all sectors of society.”
The other signatories—including nuns, doctors, journalists,
writers, and lawyers—belonged to different organizations, such as the Bahay
Tuluyan Program for Street Children, Tbak, Akbayan, ALAB-Katipunan, Kalayaan,
Freedom from Debt Coalition, Bag-o, Sarilaya, AGLO, Coalition Against
Trafficking of Women, Peace Advocates for Truth, Justice and Healing, Consuelo
Foundation, Institute of Church and Social Issues, Caritas, Kabalikat ng
Pamilyang Pilipino, PRESO Foundation, Stairway Foundation, SILAB, Center for
Migrant Advocacy, SIKAP, Kaalagad, End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism,
Well-Being Foundation, Child Justice League, Humanitarian Legal Assistance
Foundation, INAM Philippines, Women Lawyers Association of the Philippines,
PREDA, Binhi, and the World Pranic Healing Foundation.
Commission on Human Rights, Council for the Welfare of
Children, National Police Commission, Department of Health, Department of
Agrarian Reform, Supreme Court, and BJMP employees also signed the petition.
Karen Tanada and Quezon City Councilor Ariel Inton also
supported the petition.
For queries,
please contact
Atty. Perfecto G. Caparas II
Cell phone no. 0920-5086009
Email boyetcaparas@yahoo.com
