Annual report: ‘Juvenile delinquents mistreated at borstals

NGO report says children become hardened criminals in detention.

LAHORE:

Child Rights Unit of the AGHS Legal Aid Cell on Tuesday released its 2010 annual report on Children in Prisons of Punjab. The report was released at a press conference held at the Lahore Press Club.

Explaining the situation for children in jail, Hina Jillani said, “The police keep the children in jails unlawfully and do not provide them with legal help. Despite the fact that they are bound to produce the children in court within 24 hours of their arrest,” she said.

She said that the state was responsible for providing free legal aid to juvenile delinquents, whose physical and psychological health was badly affected due to improper treatment by jail officials.

Saba Sheikh, the Child Rights Unit coordinator, told The Express Tribune that the behaviour of the police greatly affected the children.

“The police tend to turn the children into hardened criminals. After they are released, the children either suffer from inferiority complex or become hardened criminals,” she said. She suggested that there should be an education programme for children in jail. The speakers urged for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 to provide the protection of rights of the children involved in litigation.

Report findings

According to the report a total of 1,061 children were jailed in 2010 compared to the 1,951 in 2009. Sixty-five per cent of the children were between 16 and 18 years of age; 34 per cent were between 12 and 15 years; and only one per cent was between seven and 11 years.

Among the total detained children, 34 per cent were charged with assault, murder and attempt to murder, 25 per cent with offences against property, 18 per cent sexual offences, 11 per cent possession of weapons and the rest with miscellaneous offences including drugs. There was a decline in charges relating drug use over the years, the report said.

Nearly 76 per cent of the children remained in jails for as much as four months in pre-sentence detention, 18 per cent from five to eight months and five per cent spent 9 months or more. Twelve children had undergone a pre-sentence detention of more than a year.

Out of the 63 children interviewed by the child rights unit, 60 said that they were not produced before a court within 24 hours of their arrest.

In December 2010, the number of juvenile convicts stood at 84. They were detained at Bahawalpur and Faisalabad borstals. On average, however, there were 64 convicts in borstals.

Most of the child convicts had been sentenced to three to seven years (23) followed closely by life imprisonment of 25 years (20).

The longest sentence awarded was in February 2010 when an 18-year-old from Bahawalpur, detained at Faisalabad borstal, was sentenced to 492 years in rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs32 million. The child was charged for murder and terrorism. A 17-year-old from Jhelum convicted in April 2009 of murder and assault was sentenced to 75 years in rigorous imprisonment, fined Rs100,000 and ordered to pay Rs500,000 in compensation.

These sentences were contrary to the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, that prohibits rigorous imprisonment for children, the report said.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2011.