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| Comunidad para Mujeres girls's prison |
Sara* was living on the streets, sometimes with different
friends, moving from place to place, when she was arrested by the Mexico City
police. She was arrested for petty robbery. Sara, like all kids arrested in
Mexico City, was first taken to the police detention for juveniles, Agency 57.
After three days she was moved to the pretrial detention facility, Comunidad para Mujeres [Women's Community].
Prison was hard. “Just the four walls. Nobody wanted to talk to me. I was alone.” After six months, her public defender told her that because her crime was petty robbery, she would be given conditional release. There was just one problem. Sara didn’t have any family to take her in. She was alone.
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| Casa Alianza girls' home |
But Sara was lucky. Casa Alianza had an agreement with the
prison to take homeless kids after their release from prison. If Sara would
live at one of Casa Alianza’s homes, sign-in with the court every week and
complete psychological therapy at Casa Alianza for six months, she would not
have to go back to prison.
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| Sara and her son |
“There was no comparison [between the prison and Casa
Alianza],” she said. “Casa Alianza had services, people to help me, listen to
me.” If it hadn’t have been for Casa Alianza “they wouldn’t have
let me leave prison, I would have been sent to a prison” with much more serious
offenders. But at Casa Alianza, Sara found a support network and
friends.
Sara completed secondary school, or junior high, at Casa
Alianza. Shortly after leaving, she complete preparatory, or high school. After
turning 18, Casa Alianza helps juveniles transition to independent living. Sara
got an apartment, she got a job.
Four years later, Sara has a regular job and is married with
two kids. “My life is totally different [because of Casa Alianza]. I was just a
girl who didn’t know anything. I was able to study, work, live independently…
there was no reason to go back to the streets.”
The Children in Prison Project and Casa Alianza
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| Girl's bed at Casa Alianza |
Approximately ten percent of children in prison in Mexico
City don’t have any family support, like Sara. Unlike Sara, most do not have
the option for conditional release, and none are currently eligible for
pretrial release simply because they do not have family. Our project is
designed to identify kids like Sara as soon as they are arrested and work
directly with the judges on supervised pretrial release. The longer these kids
stay in pretrial detention, the higher the risk of re-offending, of suffering
from depression and of dropping out of school.
These kids need a second chance more than most. Casa
Alianza is these kids’ best chance to get out of prison, complete their court-ordered
conditions, finish school had become independent adults. The alternative is a
life on the streets, cycling in and out of juvenile and adult prisons, or becoming a victim of human trafficking.
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