In 2003, the United States Department of State released a report on the appalling conditions in prison facilities in the Philippines. Overcrowded, understaffed and rotten, these prisons were deemed by the US State Department to be a violation of human rights.
In 2005, a documentary directed by Ditsi Carolino titled bunso (The Youngest Boy) wowed and shocked audiences at film festivals in both Europe and North America. The theme of the film is the plight of children thrown into the inhumane conditions of Philippine jails.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has these facts to say about this deplorable situation, where the lack of a proper juvenile justice system in the Philippines has forced children to share cells with adults.
Since 1995, more than 50,000 children have been imprisoned in the Philippines.
Approximately 28 children are detained by the police every day. That means more than one child is arrested every hour.
Of the children forced to spend time in jail, 8 out of 10 are considered first-time offenders, which means it’s the first time they’ve been on the wrong side of the law.
Statistics have shown that if a first time offender is not forced to spend time inside an adult prison, they are eight times more likely to improve and become a more productive citizen than a child who had to be detained in prison. an adult prison.
What were these kids that had a brush with the law in jail for in the first place? For the most part, the crimes they have committed are petty crimes: petty theft, loitering, caught selling drugs and other similar crimes. But if one looks closely, however, what would be the underlying cause that led these children to commit crimes that they otherwise should not have committed?
The answer to this is poverty.
Instead of being in school or playing, most children who end up in jail did so because they needed to feed themselves or their siblings, or a parent who couldn’t work for one reason or another.
Whatever the reason a child is in jail, the fact remains that a prison cell is no place for a child to be. Especially not in a prison cell in the Philippines.
Unfortunately, as long as poverty prevails in the Philippines, a child will do anything to survive. Such means of survival can end up with the child in jail. Every Filipino child who is in danger of such a fate deserves to be rescued and given the chance for a better life.