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
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, October 7, 2013
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?
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?
Sunday, October 6, 2013
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.”
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