Children in jail
I was involved in helping streetchildren during my college days. We’d go to Araneta Center, Cubao at night and play with streetchildren in the parking lots and feed them after. Sometimes, when we get there and there are no children we’d go and pick them up from the detention center of Araneta. This was just the local security of a mall putting kids in their version of a jail.
Last year, I caught the piece by CNN on jailed children in the Philippines. I was disgusted by what was happening.
This year the reporters who covered the story went back and made a follow-up story. They tried to film the conditions but they were stoped by jail authorities. Nothing much has changed.
An article called Why Juvenile Justice? in the PREDA website talks about the passing of the justice bill titled Child Protection through a Comprehensive Juvenile Justice System Act. The bill
...calls for the establishment of an Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under the Department of Justice, youth detention homes, halfway homes and youth rehabilitation centers. It requires the development of a community-based program on delinquency prevention.
The author says the bill might have been passed in response to the CNN stories. But as with everything that usually happens here, what’s good on paper doesn’t necessarily translate to something good on real life.
There are an estimated 4,000 children in our jails today. Assuming each child needs 10 square meters of living space at the cost of P10,000 per square meter, this translates to P400 million. The challenge for us is to go out there, build and pour resources into the heart-wrenching issue. Enough talk, debate, propaganda and waste of time and money as if a law is the instant solution. We know enough about unfunded laws that just add another layer to the bureaucracy. The creation of a new office, new centers and homes and new plans under the bill will require a lot of funds, too. Without the economics to back it up, the law will not work.
So here we are probably back to square one, or is that one step forward two steps back, with this new law.
More links:
The jailing of children brings trauma and abuse
Scandal of Philippines child prisoners
Charity gives hope to child inmates
The rape of caged children must be stopped
note:
(1) the links to the CNN videos above don’t seem to be working. If you do get make it work please tell me. I’d like to watch and spread the videos as well.
(2) Photos are from the Coalition to Stop Child Detention website.
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