This paper aims to highlight the different ethical issues faced by juveniles in detention centers all over the world. A brief introduction defining the terms is given in the beginning of the paper followed by a little detail of the history of the juvenile detention system. The later part sheds light on some of the main issues discussing them in detail and also mentioning the consequences of these issues. The issues include sexual abuse, wrong methods of therapy, lack of educational facility, undue punishments given by the legal system due to public pressure, the ill execution of the grievance reporting procedures, and the confinement of juveniles in adult prisons. These problems cause degradation of the child’s mental and physical health which is explained along each of the issue. At the end, some suggestions are given along with useful tips on how to bring reform and betterment to the system. The conclusion stresses the need to realize the plight of such children and do something about their situation.
Keywords: juvenile, detention, sexual abuse
INTRODUCTION
Juvenile refers to a person who is not yet an adult. The law defines a juvenile to be a person who cannot be held responsible for a crime and cannot be subjected to the sentences reserved for adults. They have separate courts for trials called the Juvenile courts. All the countries have different age definitions for adulthood, but on average we can set the general threshold at 18 years of age.
Detentions can be handed to juveniles in juvenile courts over a variety of offenses but these detention terms are different and more lenient as compared to the normal detentions handed out to adults for the same offenses (Krisberg, 2004). There are some laws that are exclusively for juveniles, for instance laws that relate to purchase of alcohol or pornography. The sentences vary in nature from community work to therapy and group discussion behaviors. Tough sentences are only carried out in cases where the crimes are of a significant nature. Though in some developing countries juveniles are send to same prisons as adults. Even in the developed countries, some people are of the view that teenagers should be send to same prisons as normal adults as their crimes have the same repercussions in society.
HISTORY
The world’s first Juvenile court opened in 1899 in Chicago (Glenn, 2010). Before the nineteenth century juvenile criminals were convicted under the same laws and were termed as young adults. After the advent of the first Juvenile court, the international community eventually realized the need for such courts and separate detention centers. The need arose because when these gullible children were put into prisons where their inmates were mostly seasoned criminals, they came out of the prisons as ones themselves because of the negative influence of those criminals. Some developing nations still don’t possess such separate facilities though.
Juvenile courts also take care of the welfare of the children who are abandoned, poor or neglected. Sometimes, crimes such as murders and shootings linked to juveniles are tried in adult criminal courts partly because of the nature and frequency of such crimes and partly because of the public outrage over such crimes (Anderson, 1998 May-June).
MSTREATMENT OF JUVENILES
Children are an extremely vulnerable class both mentally and physically and therefore, are at the risk of being exploited both outside and inside of detention centers. The main purpose of juvenile detention centers is the rehabilitation of the children. It means that they should be provided with an environment where there problems can be handled in a way that makes them give up the habit or act that forced them to end up in the detention center. For example, if the child was convicted for drug abuse, health care should be given to him along with therapy sessions group discussion sessions. But there have been increasing instances where the children have been handled in ways that comes under the heading of abuse. Such behavior can magnify the problem but not rectify it. The mistreatment of these vulnerable children ranges from physical and sexual to mental abuse. It is a very real situation that has sadly not been paid much attention to. It requires are attention and consideration because those children in there will be significant part of our society tomorrow. We can opt to leave them in their condition and look forward to handling a depressed and misguided part of the youth tomorrow. Or we can choose to alleviate their condition and eliminate their problems. The transgression on ethical boundaries of any profession should be intolerable especially when they come in context of such sensitive areas as juvenile detention. We will discuss such transgressions on ethical behavior one by one.
1. MISTREATMENT DURING THERAPY
The ethics of therapy require that the privacy of the patient be respected irrespective of his age or sex. The focus of the therapists, especially in case of children should be to effectively end the stigma they are facing as it is something that could destroy their futures.
But it is a sad state of affairs when instances of ill-treatment and harsh behavior by the therapists come to light. Such behavior permanently disturbs the mental state of the child (Cohen, 1988).
Care in this regard is more important because the subjects are children who can successfully be discouraged from committing crimes by just a little effort and understanding, or could be made into permanent offenders for life because of an equally small amount of mishandling. The logical and ethical thing to do is to provide the treatment in an atmosphere of empathy and respect for the dignity of the child. Children who are made to repeat their experiences again and again experience difficulty in managing to cope with their experiences as the continuous repetition marks their sub-conscience for a longer period of time.
2. SEXUAL ABUSE
Sexual abuse of juveniles in prison is perhaps the most common and the most despicable form of maltreatment that they experience. In a national study in USA carried over 9000 juvenile inmates, an astonishing 12% admitted that they had been victimized to sexual violence by other inmates and staff (Centers, 2010). This issue is not a new one but the numbers of such instances are still horrifying. It is a horrendous transgression of ethical code of conduct. Such instances are more common in juvenile facilities as they can be more easily coaxed into such situations. Facilities with high level of sexual abuse reported have staff that is not adequately trained. But at the end of the day, it depends on our own individual morality as such instances are not inevitable but are certainly preventable.
The effects of such an abuse leave permanent scars on the memories and personalities of the children who end up being victim to it. There are many factors that attribute to such a behavior, like that of poor and unconcerned management, the oppressing and frustrating environment of the facilities and the moral degradation of our society in general.
Even more disturbing is the fact that when such children who report abuse are sent to an alternative facility, they are seen as easy targets their which makes their situation worst instead of mitigating the problem. Children have reported to have gone through abuse for as many as 10 times especially those who show homosexual traits and behavior. They are afraid of accepting their sexual orientation because of the consequent abuse they might have to suffer (Schwartz, 1989).
This is not an unknown fact or a unique finding. Prisons have been famous in terms of instances of rape mostly by the inmates and sometimes also by the staff. Juvenile detention centers are especially vulnerable to such incidents because of the less ability of children to defend themselves in any situation. Their sexual orientation is not even fully developed yet. The lack of proper awareness topped up by instances of abuse effectively destroy any notions of their sexuality they might have been successful in developing.
Another problem comes when dealing with children who are themselves labeled as sexual offenders. Therapy to such offenders sometimes uses techniques that completely disregard their dignity. These techniques can require the child to repeatedly express his feelings over the issue which gives the therapists the chance to humiliate the subject. The use of aversion therapy and masturbatory satiation are derogatory, intrusive and humiliating (McGarrell, 1988). Some legal scholars have noted that some of the instruments used in detention centers to diagnose sexual deviance among children and teenagers have the tendency to be unreliable and scientifically un-established. The APA code of ethics demands the psychologists to use reliable ad tested methods and instruments. Some of the methods like arousal reconditioning and cognitive restructuring are methods that are highly objectionable. They mess with the child’s psychology and produce confusion in their minds over sexual orientation. They stigmatize the young minds that can lead to devastating social consequences once the child is free to face the world.
3. EDUCATION
These children have to be made ready to face the world once their detention period is over. There is no hope of them doing so if they are not introduced to worldly education and normally they are not provided with it. This is the case with many of the detention centers. They focus more on punitive measures than reformatory ones. This is in violation of the international law that gives equal opportunity of acquiring education to all the children. This is an ethical issue that has to be taken care of irrespective of the tenure of detention. Education also serves as the best form of therapy. It is the best form of motivation
4. THE SENTENCES
Detention to children is awarded over a range of issues. But a part of public has been demanding greater forms of punishments for juveniles in light of some college shooting that took the lives of several college children such as the Columbine high school shootings and the Springfield, Oregon rampage. Undue harsh punishments should not be punished because of such instances. Each case has to be dealt on its own merit. This is a part of the ethics of law.
5. DETENTION WITH ADULTS
In many countries that cannot afford separate facilities, there are no juvenile detention centers and children are put into adult prisons. This is a sure shot way of making sure that the children come out as seasoned criminals. This also puts the children at high rates of being abused in so many unimaginable ways. The levels of sexual offenses hike up in such prisons. The children simply cannot defend themselves against adult criminals. Some of them are misled by the adult inmates into adopting crime as a permanent way of life. It is not uncommon for the adults to use the poor children even outside the detention centers.
It can be a traumatizing experience for the children and can result in serious mental health issues. Instead of making betterment in the society, the detention of children along with hardened criminals destroys the fabric of our society as it helps instill criminal ideas in their young minds. They make it a way of life under the influence of their inmates, and any hope of them becoming better vanishes completely.
6. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
Many of the parents of the children in such facilities are fearful of reporting any abuse their child might have told them about because of the negative retaliation of the management staff. They are told that their children are not like normal children and therefore do not deserve normal treatment. This form of behavior snatches away the confidence from the parents or friends to report any grievance (Ira M. Schwartz, 1994). The parents not only lose confidence in the legal system but also in their hope of their child’s benefit. This is the worse form of transgression on the ethics of the profession of the legal people because it snatches the most precious thing from the parents, i.e. hope.
The children themselves are not hopeful of any corrective action over the offenders usually. They are fearful of being made a target by the staff as revenge. The system of reporting grievances is thus as good as non-existing (Krisberg, Juvenile Justice: Redeeming Our Children, 2005).
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE LAW
The Law here refers to the judges, lawyers, guards and wardens and everyone who is responsible for the juvenile offenders. These are the main people who are directly responsible for these children. In the USA there is an organization called the National Juvenile Detention Association (NJDA) which describes a code of ethics that help advocate the ethical and legal rights of the youth eliminating all forms of unethical and illegal behaviors. It gives a comprehensive detail of how the staff should act demonstrating the highest levels of ethical conduct. It also gives outlines strict punishment for those who cross this ethical boundary. It is an obligation of the profession that other staff members report on anyone they suspect. The association has defined these terms for all the members of the legal community (Liss, 2005).
It is an example association for the rest of the world community as well. The grievance reporting procedures are also an important issue. Steps towards making the procedure better and easier have to be taken so that the problems children face in these centers can come to the fore front and be dealt with in an effective way.
Segregating children who experience abuse is not a solution of the problem but rather aids in aggravating it. It makes the child think that the abuse was somehow his fault. The logical solution is to segregate the abuser instead of the abused.
Children are a particularly sensitive section of the society as their minds are in a constant phase of development. Imagine what kind of development they would go through in the enclosed and oppressive environment of the detention centers. This in no way intends to suggest that they shouldn’t be subjected to punitive measures, but rather aims at expressing the need of making juvenile prisons into more of a rehabilitation center.
It is also the responsibility of the governments to make sure that the persons involved in the handling of juveniles go through proper training. Periodical psychological assessment tests should be carried out to keep them in check. The parents should be given quick and effective legal assistance in case they experience any negative attitude from the staff.
CONCLUSION
We consider children to be our futures. The children in detention centers are no different than the other children. We should show our consideration for the situation of these children by helping alleviate the reasons that force these children into committing crimes. They are a part of our future as well. Their unsafe circumstances and environment have to be changed into beneficial and progressive circumstances that aid the rehabilitation of such children. We can ill-afford to make them a neglected part of our society.
We need only take care of today and tomorrow will be taken care of automatically.
References
Anderson, D. C. (1998 May-June). When Should Kids Go to Jail. the American Prospect.
Centers, J. I. (2010, January 19). NPR. Retrieved from npr.org: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122725085
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Routledge.
Glenn, P. (2010). Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law. Oxford University Press.
Ira M. Schwartz, W. H. (1994). Reforming Juvenile Detention. Ohio State University Press.
Krisberg, B. (2004). Juvenile Justice: Redeeming Our Children. Sage publications.
Krisberg, B. (2005). Juvenile Justice: Redeeming Our Children. Sage.
Liss, S. (2005). No Place For Children: Voices From Juvenile Detention. Univ Texas Press.
McGarrell, E. F. (1988). Juvenile Correctional Reform: Two Decades of Policy and Procedural Change. SUNY Press.
Schwartz, I. M. (1989). (In)Justice for Juveniles: Rethinking the Best Interests of the Child. Lexington Books.
