Why sending children to jail is a bad idea

On April 22, the Union cabinet cleared amendments to the Juvenile Justice Bill that will allow children aged 16 to 18 to be tried and punished as adults for certain heinous crimes, such as murder and rape. This has been passed despite a detailed (294 page report) from the parliamentary standing committee clearly recommending against it, and evidence from Western countries, such as the United States, that this model does not work.

Building a safer society

Many of us working in the child rights sector and indeed women's rights, have strongly opposed this move, not just because it goes against child rights legislation; evidence from child psychology and neuroscience, but because we know that besides being a travesty of justice, it will not create a safer society - in fact, it will lead to a more violent and brutalised society.

We know that the problem is that we have not invested sufficiently in children - despite them comprising more than 30 per cent of our population. In particular, over the last 15 years, we have not invested sufficiently in implementing the Juvenile Justice Act. The JJ Act comprises two sections - "Children in need of care and protection" and "Children in conflict with the law". We have invested in neither of these areas - neither in the care and protection of children, nor in the juvenile justice system - to build a strong juvenile reform system.

We still have thousands of children on the streets who face violence and abuse every day, and have no one to turn to for help. Hundreds of thousands remain out of school, and even though we have the Right to Education Act, nearly 50 per cent of the children drop out of school before they have finished Class 8. It is these children, who then get coerced or pressured into crime - and who we now want to lock up with criminal adults. The question, therefore, we all  need to ask is: Will sending young 16 to 18-year-olds to prison make our society better or safer? Do we want to give children a chance to reform and be rehabilitated, or do we want to turn 16-year-olds into hardened criminals, which is surely what will happen.

What are the facts?

Before we rush to introduce a new law, let us look at the facts:

1. Less than two per cent of all crimes are committed by children in the age group 16-18 years. This rate has been fairly static over the last five years.

2. Five per cent of rapes were committed by children in this age group, and in fact many of these cases are actually attributed to the increase in the age of consent of sexual activity from 16 to 18 years.

3. By nature of their psycho-biological profile, adolescents are greatly influenced by their environment, and too immature to weigh the consequences of their actions.

4. National crime statistics reveal that nearly 80 per cent of juveniles accused of crimes belong to families that have an annual income of less than Rs 50,000 and more than 50 per cent of them have not finished primary school.

5. India spends less than five per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on children and less than one per cent on child protection Changing the JJ Act 2000 will violate the United Nations convention on child rights that India has ratified, international principles of juvenile justice and, indeed our own Constitution.

Implement the current law

The current JJ Act provides a section for serious offences - where children are to be treated differently. This section can be amended to make the sentence longer than three years - and provide a strong probation system so that juveniles are not let out if they are at risk of re-offending and continue to be monitored, as is done in several other countries. It was after many deliberations and the collective efforts of child rights organisations, the judiciary and larger civil society that we had promulgated the present Act. However, just as they can be influenced negatively, children can also be moulded the right way. To try and punish them like adults and send them to prison would grossly violate their right to equality.

Crime ki pathshaala

Children see, children learn. But it seems that we adults don't. Across the globe, the experience of putting children in adult prisons has been revelatory. They only become hardened criminals and come out to commit graver crimes because spending time with much older criminals doesn't allow them a chance to reform while they can still do that. Studies from around the world show that putting juveniles into prison does not work. In fact, there is a higher rate of recidivism amongst juveniles who have been imprisoned.

Unlike most other states in the US, New York treats 16 and 17-year-olds as adults. Yet, New York State’s juveniles re-offend at high rates. By the time children who have been released from a state facility reach turn 28, 89 per cent of boys and 81 per cent of the girls will have been rearrested. Therefore, let us not adopt a failed model.

In the long history of child rights in India, this is perhaps the most regressive moment when the ministry of women and child development proposes to re-enact the progressive and world renowned juvenile Justice Act 2000, because we have failed to invest in its implementation.

We hope that the honourable members of Parliament will pay heed to various scientific studies and evidence on the ground that sending children to adult jails is counter-productive, and rise to the ocassion to ensure that we once again do not regress by passing this retributive new JJ Bill - failing our children and society.