NGO Launching

International Justice Consulting, Inc had our official launch party with a few friends and board members this past Friday. It was a great event, where we shared some authentic and non-authentic Mexican food (Tinga, Sopa Azteca and nacho cheese dip!).

Most excitingly, I got to share the mission and vision of International Justice Consulting and the Children in Prison Project. I think we are developing a great support network in Minnesota and we are close to raising enough support to keep our work going strong.

Also, our website is close to going live.

The only disappointment is that our 501(c)(3) application hasn't been sent back from the IRS yet. But we are hoping it will be soon!

Happy Holidays

Movement in Mexico City

There has been significant movement towards reforming the pretrial detention system in Mexico City. The Tribunal Superior de Justicia is proposing to create a pretrial services division that would make recommendations on releasing juveniles and then supervise their release (like a probation officer for pretrial release).

Then today the Federal District's legislative assembly proposed to pay bail for first time offenders (juveniles would only have to pay $500 MX or about $45 USD rather than the usual $5000 MX).

Here is the news article (in Spanish): Plans Announced to Cover Bail for First Time Offenders

Mexico City Report on Juvenile Pretrial Detention

From January to May I completed the research for my Fulbright Fellowship on Juvenile Pretrial Detention in Mexico City. This included 51 interviews with juveniles in detention, 12 interviews with judges, prosecutors, public defenders and other experts, and collecting data from the Mexico City government.

Here are some of the key findings of my research:

• 41%: Proportion of juveniles in detention that are awaiting trial.

• 42%: Juveniles accused of any crime that remain in pretrial detention.

• 63%: Juveniles accused of grave crimes that remain in pretrial detention.

• 37%: Juveniles accused of robbery offenses that receive pretrial release.

• 7%: Non-robbery offenses that receive pretrial release.

• 25 Days: the average number of days juveniles wait in detention before being granted pretrial release.

• 79 Days: the average number of days juveniles are in pretrial detention awaiting trial.

• 10%: Juveniles that remain in pretrial detention because they cannot afford bail.

• 2%: Juveniles in release that fail to fulfill release conditions.


What does this mean? If a kid is arrested in Mexico City for a "grave" crime (anything from robbery to drug possession to rape and murder), he or she can expect to be in detention for about 25 days. Then IF his or her parents attend every hearing, and IF they collection evidence of good behavior and IF they pay the bail in full ($450 usually), he or she MAY be released. If not, expect another four months of detention while the trial process drags on. Unless he or she is from Mexico State and not Mexico City, then there is no chance of release regardless.

Poor kids, kids accused of drug crimes, kids who´s parents can't always make the hour + commute to the court, or parents who don't have the means to collect evidence to prove their kid deserves pretrial release, sit in prison. There are even cases of kids who don't qualify for pretrial release or can't pay bail, who even when found guilty that the crime is so petty the judge sentences them to probation. I met one such boy and his mother the day he was released from detention (which was oddly the same day he was found guilty).

While I worked in the juvenile trial division at the public defender's in Washington DC, I probably saw a hundred kids plead guilty and never have to wait for a trial. No so in Mexico. At the first hearing many juveniles do confess. But that won't shorten their time in pretrial detention by one day. Every step in the trial is still taken.

The judges and prosecutor are theoretically concerned that the kids won't show up for the trial if they let him or her out. But less than 2% of juveniles granted release fail to appear. And that is without dedicated pretrial services supervision.

The complete report will be available soon.

The Forgotten of the Forgotten

It seems that fighting for juvenile justice reforms is a no-man's land. Governments typically don't care much about the juvenile justice system as the courts, jails, government offices, public defenders and prosecutors are all more under-funded than the adult system. A simple walk through the juvenile court building in Mexico City is all it takes to see the holes in the walls, paint chipped entirely off the walls, and offices stacked with people in small desks where they can barely function.

The criminal justice reforms that were passed in 2008 to modernize the courts and guarantee rights for defendants and victims alike, have barely touched the juvenile justice system. The federal agency overseeing the implementation of the reforms, SETEC, has barely included the juvenile system in its discussions. The US Embassy is supporting these reforms via the US Agency for International Development (USAID). When I asked the USAID director for the criminal justice project in Mexico what programs they have funded related to juvenile justice, he cited just one, four years ago. He stated that was because SETEC hasn't prioritized juvenile justice.

The international community is little better. Criminal justice and rule of law projects that work on prison and court reform almost always work in the adult system to the exclusion or near exclusion of juveniles. One NGO director that specialized in prison reform told me that there just aren't very many juveniles in prison compared to adults. On the other had, children's rights organizations let you sponsor children to pay for their health care and schooling, but rarely venture into children's prisons or have the expertise to advocate for juvenile justice reforms.

Kids in prison are truly the forgotten of the forgotten. Mostly petty criminals, they are left to sit in prison for months or years, missing school, losing important connections to family and community. Even when their government begins taking serious steps to improve the criminal justice system, they find out there are not enough of them in prison to warrant much attention. How many of these kids will one day help to fill up the adult prisons?

Mi Libertad - My Freedom

In my last post I told about some of the boys in detention that I had met and the songs that they had written for a music concert. On a return visit I asked the staff for a copy of the lyrics to the songs and they gave me the entire song book that the boys had written. Each dormitory wrote songs for the concert.  About three quarters of the songs are about girls and the rest about prison. Considering they are 14-17 year old boys, I was lucky that any of the songs talked about prison life!

The song "Visiting Day" was written by the boys of Dormitory 1 which is the "new comers' " dormitory. These kids have been in prison for maybe four or five days, which in my mind make the words of "Visiting Day" sting a bit deeper. Here is another song written by Dormitory 1 called "Mi Libertad" or "My Freedom":

“I WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE

SO THAT MY LIFE CAN CHANGE

TO BE DIFFERENT TO EVERYBODY

AND TO BE ABLE TO EMBRACE MY LADY

AND NEVER AGAIN TURN TO ROBBING

AND WITH MY FAMILY I CAN ENJOY

MY FREEDOM, MY FREEDOM.”

“TO GO TO SCHOOL AND STUDY

THE CHANCE TO HOOK UP WITH A GIRL

AND I CAN MAKE IT LIKE A NORMAL MAN

I START TO SING WITH ALL THE BAND

AND ALL THE BAND WILL TELL YOU

VALUE YOUR LIFE AND YOUR FREEDOM

YOUR FREEDOM, YOUR FREEDOM

YOUR FREEDOM, YOUR FREEDOM.”

Welcome to "Children in Prison"

Welcome to the blog "Children in Prison" from International Justice Consulting. International Justice Consulting came out of my work as Fulbright researcher in Mexico in 2012-2013. I spent the year researching juveniles being detained while they are awaiting trial. In Mexico, up to half of the entire prison population is awaiting trial. Depending on the state in Mexico, pretrial detention can last from six months to a year. Kids sitting in detention, waiting for a trial, for up to a year!

My first project was in Mexico City, where it is nearly impossible for kids to access pretrial release programs and pay bail. As a result of this research, I created International Justice Consulting (IJC), a non-profit organization who's goal is to help governments create alternatives to detention. IJC is currently working on incorporating and applying for 501(c)(3) status.

My Year in Mexico's Juvenile Prisons

I knocked on the guardhouse. When the stern-faced guarded opened the gate I showed him my ID and my letter authorizing me to enter the Mexico City boys’ prison. I registered, removed my belt and left everything but my notepad and pen. Then he led me down a passageway and into the large courtyard of the juvenile prison.

The director, a slender middle-aged woman named Alejandra gave me a lengthy tour of the facility; the dining room, kitchen, courtyard, wood shop, class rooms, and dormitories. As we went to each of the eight dormitories, she would ask the boys “Are you treated well? Are you well fed? Do you have any complaints?” Yes, Yes and No were the automatic answers each time.

Some boys were playing soccer in a concrete courtyard.  Others stood in a circle joking with a guard. They all wore the same “uniform” of blue sweatpants, white t-shirts and blue flip-flops.  It left an impression of happy boy with enriching activities, kind of like summer camp.

The last stop on the tour was a guitar class. The volunteer music teacher sat with about ten boys and they all played and sang a song they had written called Visiting Day:

“I feel so sad

I am angry

Because I am here

But I trust

In my family

Even though I did not want to listen.”

“Misplaced

Out of control

I cannot be happy here

When all of my family is somewhere else

Being locked up is so hard.”

“Saturday and Sunday

Families hurry to see their kids

And try to have a good time.

Even though it is just a little while

To be together even though they are locked up.

Because it´s the law.”

“The sad rain

Of Families crying

Because they have to be separated

For all of the damage

They have caused

By following evil men.”

“They didn’t realizing

That so many people

Support and love them

When they were in the street

Always drugged

My poor mother looked

To the heavens crying.”

“Saturday and Sunday…

Because it’s the law

Because it’s the law.”

The boys had written a dozen such songs for an upcoming music program. These were not summer camp songs. “With my shadow I am not alone”, “I want to be like air to be in anyplace” and “I do not want to be chained, I do not want to die here” were some of the lines from their songs.

Once the boys found out that I was an American lawyer they all wanted to tell me their stories.  Most of them had been grabbed off the street by the police without knowing why they were being arrested. One mother, who tightly held her son’s hand, told me she had searched all over the city for him the day he disappeared and finally found him the next morning at the juvenile prison.

Most kids saw their parents every weekend on visiting day. Not Pablo.[1] Pablo was a small, smiley little thirteen-year-old. He hadn’t talked to his parents in weeks. They didn´t even know he was in prison. Pablo came from an indigenous community in the mountains of Oaxaca about eight hours from Mexico City. Despite his smile, he was scared and very alone.

The most ubiquitous image of juvenile delinquency in the Mexican media is the “niño sicario” or child assassin, a thirteen year old boy who confessed to participating in ten murders. Despite the sensational journalism surrounding this one case, 90 percent of the juveniles in Mexico City were arrested for property crimes and less than three percent for homicide.

The justice system is hard on petty criminals but ineffective at prosecuting organized crime and violent offenses. This is because prosecutors rely almost exclusively on confessions, often extracted by mistreatment or torture, but they are not experienced in building complex cases based on carefully gathered evidence. The United States Agency for International Development has been helping Mexico reform its justice system and increase the respect for human rights. But almost no resources have gone to the juvenile system.

I wished Pablo luck, just like I wished luck and said a prayer for every child I met. They would need it.

Kids in Mexico’s detention system often suffer from depression and stop going to school. Some will join gangs and be rearrested as adults for serious crimes. The lack of services to help them transition back makes Mexico’s public security problems worse by turning petty-criminals into serious adult offenders.

As I left I thanked Pablo for talking to me. He was accused of a petty theft and would normally be released on bail. But until his parents showed up and paid $450 he would stay in prison.  Pablo wasn’t alone. About ten percent of the kids here couldn’t afford to pay bail and had to stay in prison for up to six months until the end of their trials. Because it’s the law, because it’s the law.

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[1] Pablo´s name was changed to protect his identity.