Homeless and In Prison - Losing all Hope

I had the great pleasure of meeting with Casa Alianza- Mexico today. They gave me a tour a two of their five youth homes for homeless teenagers in Mexico City. It was an amazing experience. Casa Alianza, known as Covenant House in the US and Canada, is an organization that works with homeless teenagers through North and Central America. They have been in Mexico City for 26 years! There is an amazing amount of overlap between the homeless youth population and children in prison.

Excessive juvenile detention worsening Mexico's security problems?

There has been a lot written about Mexico's security problems. The drug war has led to tens of thousands of deaths. Certain municipalities, cities and large parts of some states are very dangerous places, where narco-gangs operate with impunity. We have met many families who have moved from more dangerous parts of the country to start life over in Mexico City - internally displaced people.

As a result of the insecurity, political pressure to get "tough on crime" has led to very draconian juvenile justice laws. Many states in Mexico allow kids to be imprisoned for one year or more while awaiting trial. Some states have excessive penalties juveniles, as high as 20 year sentences in some cases.

Is juvenile justice policy actually contributing to the security problems?

Criminal justice reforms and legal education - creating a juvenilejustice clinic

In recent weeks I have been exploring the possibility of working with Mexican universities to create a juvenile justice law clinic. There are a few public and private law schools in Mexico City that have clinical programs, but none work with juveniles in prison. But the universities that I have spoken I with are very excited about the possibility.