Georgette Mulheir Examines the Dangers of Juvenile Justice Systems Around the World
(Photo : Georgette Mulheir Examines the Dangers of Juvenile Justice Systems Around the World)

Children's Rights Activist Georgette Mulheir uncovers the hidden truths behind juvenile justice systems and the steps we can take to help children change their behaviours without incarcerating them.

The right to personal liberty may be one of the oldest and most essential human rights. But justice systems around the world detain or incarcerate children in poor conditions for even the smallest offences. Though international legislation is designed to minimise the incarceration of children, a 2020 study by the United Nations has found that millions of children live in prisons, detention centres, and other institutions around the world.  As children are deprived of their liberty, each loses their childhood, agency, and visibility. They lose opportunities for a better future and relationships with those who love them. Here, Children's Rights Activist and Global Systems Change Expert Georgette Mulheir examines the dangers of detention facilities around the world, including the institutions that promise rehabilitative treatment and care.

Georgette Mulheir Examines the Dangers of Juvenile Justice Systems Around the World

Children at Risk

Whilst some children do commit serious offences, the UN Study found that justice systems incarcerate children who have only committed minor offences - even in high-income countries.  These children tend to be from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.  Moreover, children from ethnic and religious minorities, or migrant and indigenous communities are much more likely to be incarcerated - even if they have not committed offences.

Once living in detention facilities, children find themselves at a serious disadvantage. The risk of abuse is high. They often miss out on education. The chances of these children committing further offences once released increase significantly.

These institutions share characteristics that make them dangerous living environments for children. Many young people who live in these settings face separation, isolation, and sometimes solitary confinement. Many develop infectious diseases because of overcrowding. In some, wardens physically restrict children, which can lead to poor physical development. In others, wardens force children to take medication to control their behaviour. Most importantly, all of these children lack the love and family life essential for emotional and cognitive development. When deprived of their liberty in these ways, children are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders and even to die prematurely.

Juvenile Justice System Scandals in the UK and U.S.

International law states that justice systems should only incarcerate children as a last resort and that if justice systems must incarcerate a child, this should be for the shortest time possible. However, justice systems incarcerate many children for long periods, even if they have only committed minor offences. Often, it's indigenous and minority children that justice systems are subject to arrest and detention - and many countries detain children to enforce migration law.

Georgette Mulheir Examines the Dangers of Juvenile Justice Systems Around the World
 

Even some of the wealthiest countries, like the UK and U.S., are responsible for unjustly incarcerating children. According to Georgette Mulheir, "profit-led motives often drive these cases.  In some situations, the drive for profit is made at the expense of quality provision, resulting in serious risk to children.  In other cases, the profit motive has led directly to increased levels of unnecessary incarceration of children."  Scandals in the USA and the UK reinforce Mulheir's concerns.  In 2011, two judges from Pennsylvania were convicted[CM1]  of incarcerating 2,401 young people in two detention centres. The judges accepted bribes totalling $2.6 million from the builder of these detention centres, who received funding per occupied bed, to increase the number of children incarcerated. The convicted children - some as young as ten - had committed minor offences: one had stolen a jar of nutmeg. One had posted webpage spoofs about an assistant school principal. And another was caught with drug paraphernalia. Though the justice system has expunged these criminal records, the effects are long-lasting. One of these young people committed suicide.

As recently as June 2021, the UK government closed a private youth jail in Warwickshire because of serious ongoing safety issues[CM2]. Ofsted had raised concerns about Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, where wardens locked up children for more than 23 hours a day. Given the lack of secure training centres, the justice system has now transferred at least half of these 33 children to young offender institutions[CM3]  (YOIs), even though many of these young people are assessed as too vulnerable for YOIs and require the higher staff-to-child ratio that secure training centres offer.

Community-Based Responses

According to Georgette Mulheir, "most children living in detention facilities would be better served by community-based approaches - and this is also beneficial to society, as community-based responses are much more likely to reduce repeat-offending among children and children are at  a much lower risk of abuse." Research, such as R. A Mendel's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Progress Report, increasingly demonstrates that adolescents need a rehabilitative justice system, not a punishment-centred system. As the adolescent brain is not fully developed, a focus on rehabilitation is essential to help young people remap their lives and learn how to integrate with society. The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative's (JDAI) research also supports this way of thinking, having found that even a short stay in detention facilities can cause lifelong damage.

The World Report 2016 (Rights Trends in Children Behind Bars) explains[CM4]  that rehabilitation-focused policies and procedures that focus on probation, mediation, counselling and community service could divert many children from incarceration.

"Crucially", says Mulheir, "integrating social work into the practice of juvenile justice can be hugely beneficial for children."  The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law published a study that introduced social work in juvenile justice systems around the world. The study concluded that juvenile justice systems should offer tailored support for each child. It also emphasised that juvenile justice systems should accept that occasional 'non-compliance' is normal for adolescents.

Introducing social workers to juveniles' care allows each child's needs to become a priority in their rehabilitation. When justice systems tailor services to a child, their family, and their specific circumstances, they are in the best position to rehabilitate, treat, and educate children.

The good news is that, in some countries, these new approaches are being translated into practice - and the results speak for themselves.  The JDAI is working to reform U.S. juvenile justice systems. This network of justice practitioners and stakeholders reaches more than one-third of the total youth population in the U.S justice system. So far, JDAI has helped decrease the daily detention population by 43 per cent.

One of the keys to success in rehabilitating children in contact with the law is the strength of children's family relationships.  That's why the role of social workers in juvenile justice is so important.  Recognising what has caused children's offending behaviour and helping overcome those challenges is key to reducing repeat-offending and helping children get back on the right path.

Family-based responses for children who commit offences

But for children who are charged with serious offences, it is usually decided to remand them in custody.  Some children can wait long periods incarcerated before their case is heard and this can have a detrimental effect on their well-being as well as the chances they will re-offend.  "In these circumstances", says Georgette Mulheir,  "around the world, justice systems should consider carefully the emerging evidence on utilising specially trained foster families, rather than incarceration."

Specially-trained Remand foster families usually care for juveniles while they await court proceedings.  They provide a stable family environment, whilst working closely with all the other professionals in the child's life - justice officials, social workers, teachers, health workers.   These foster families can have a positive impact on a child's life and research shows that children who have committed offences are far less likely to re-offend if placed in a specialised foster family[CM5]  instead of a detention facility. Meanwhile, over 88 per cent of juveniles who await court proceedings in prison re-offend within two years[CM6]. This is because specially-trained foster families can offer children safe, non-judgemental environments to help them reform their lives. They can also accompany juveniles on meetings with solicitors and court matters, becoming their allies.

Various studies confirm the positive outcomes that remand foster care placements encourage. For example, the University of Bristol conducted a study into an NCH Wessex project that employed 15 foster carers to care for 46 children who were on remand. The study compared the behaviour of juveniles in foster care against the behaviour of juveniles in custody and on unsupported bail. The research found that fewer than a quarter of young people in foster care offended while awaiting court proceedings. Only one young person in the project population committed an offence that was more serious than their original charge. Meanwhile, 58 per cent of children remanded to local authority accommodation committed offences during their remand. And 35 per cent of children on unsupported bail committed offences during their remand, too.

91 per cent of the children in the study had faced serious family issues. These issues included limited contact, rejection, violence, and drug and alcohol abuse. Many had also been in care. Foster placements helped these children form new family relationships and develop vital connections with a support network. As young people develop relationships with their foster families, they're more likely to talk with their carers openly and honestly. "Remand foster caring is challenging and requires much hard work and patience", says Georgette Mulheir. "But placing young people in supportive family settings helps them change their behaviours and, often, recover from previous traumas. Institutional settings simply cannot offer this support."

Georgette Mulheir Comments on Progress to Date

According to the UN Study, the world has a long way to go. Every year, judicial and administrative authorities deprive at least 1.3-1.5 million children of their liberty. "Throughout the world", says Georgette Mulheir, "juvenile justice systems are still too focused on punishment and control, rather than creating a better society."  Recent developments in some countries are rethinking the purpose of juvenile justice - to protect society from crime, but also ensure responses are proportionate and effective.  Where children have committed offences, countries also have a responsibility to protect them from harm.  Incarceration of children is inherently harmful and exposes children to a high risk of all forms of abuse.  And it has been demonstrated that community and family-based responses are much more successful - both in protecting children and in reducing reoffending.  What's more, says Mulheir, "these approaches are also cheaper.  As a world, we spend billions locking children up.  If we invested those funds in supporting children in families and strengthening communities, we would reduce crime and increase the number of children given a second chance to contribute to society."

Georgette Mulheir Examines the Dangers of Juvenile Justice Systems Around the World
 

About Georgette Mulheir

Georgette Mulheir works with child protection organisations around the world to put a stop to abusive practices and ensure children receive the care they need. Over the past three decades, she has led programmes that have saved the lives of 15,000 children and protected hundreds of thousands more. Many know her for her influential TED talk, 'The Tragedy of Orphanages' and her works on children's rights.