Say Yes, Spring 2004: A Grim Road
Youthful behaviour or conduct that does not conform to overall social norms and values is often part of the maturation and growth process and tends to disappear spontaneously in most individuals with the transition to adulthood.
The Riyadh Guidelines
Children who come in contact with the law need care and protection in order to fulfil their potential. Children, including adolescents, who come into contact with the law should be offered reintegration -- not retribution. For the state and society there is an obligation to care and protect these children and to help them build a meaningful life for themselves.
Here are the stories of three children, in their own words, who have come into conflict with the law as a result of society’s failure to guide and protect them. In their different ways, Ahmet and Semih are still looking for help to reintegrate. Hasan is sadly, in his younger brother’s words, another fallen star
. Names have been altered to protect the children’s identities.
Ahmet
My name is Ahmet and I am sixteen years old. I made a mistake -- fell in with some bad company, I suppose. I told them, I said:
We shouldn’t go too far. I had the feeling I was going to get caught this time. I even said to Mehmet ‘This will be the last time’ but we were all broke as usual and Osman had to get a present for his girlfriend. Anyway we set a trap to get this guy’s mobile phone. The guy was smart though. Seems his mobile phone meant a lot to him. It all went wrong for us so we split out in different directions.
He came after me and of course I got caught -- as they say,
the locust never jumps a third time. I ended up down at the police station. Then they sent me to the Detention Centre.
So what am I going to do with myself when I get out you ask me? Well I’ve landed myself in a mess, haven’t I? I don’t know what I’ll do but if you were to ask me would I do it again, I’d say no. Definitely not.
I wonder if my parents will take me back -- they couldn’t believe I’d gone and done such a stupid thing -- it broke their hearts. At least I was honest with them, told them the truth.
Mind you, everyone should spend a bit of time in here. Learn something about life. You surely wouldn’t want to make the same mistake twice.
Semih
I’m eighteen years old now -- I’ve been in prison for the past three years. All day, every day, same place, same faces all around. After a time, it doesn’t matter why you’re there or how long it’s been. You just look forward to the day they let you out.
So I’m out now for all the difference it makes: I couldn’t stay with my folks even if that’s what they wanted. They would’ve poked their noses into my business too much. So with the help of friends I rented a room for 40 million lira a month and then I went looking for a job.
No matter where I went, it was the same story. No work. Folks would spot my tattoos and start thinking I was some kind of psycho. The funny thing is that’s just the way they made me feel. I found a job in the end but it only lasted two months. The work was ok but I got sick listening to the boss ordering me about, warning me about this and that.
The Employment Agency helped me find another job. That was fine but things went sour with my girlfriend -- we broke up and then she started spreading rumours about me -- I was out of work again within a month.
My next job was some distance away and the boss wouldn’t help with travel so I had to walk which made me late. When the boss started giving out to me for bad time-keeping I ditched it in and went to work in my cousin’s kiosk. But we couldn’t make enough for the two of us and I had to go find something else.
I tried cleaning work. It was hard and I wore my fingers to the bone. I went to work in a bakery but it was a very early start and I might as well just have slept there while I was at it.
My last job was carwashing.
All of that in the space of a single year. So what am I going to do with myself now? Summer is coming and I’m planning to head down to Antalya or Alanya with my cousin. We’ll try looking for work there. See what happens.
Hüseyin’s big brother
My big brother Hasan was seventeen when he died. I loved him very much. He was so good-hearted -- wouldn’t step on an ant.
Anyway he started to act strangely, coming home late at night, looking rough. Our mother would yell:
You’re a good-for-nothing!Our father was out of work at the time and he got onto Hasan’s case as well, telling him he should be bringing the bread home.
Once he brought some music sets and tape recorders back home, telling us they belonged to a mate who would be collecting them later. Of course you can see what’s coming?
They picked him up and because he was still at school, he got a suspended sentence.
He stayed out a lot after that, coming home now and again to lay around and watch a bit of television. I only learned afterwards that he’d been living rough. Then he had a big fight with our parents and he didn’t come home at all after that. Just hung around with some shady friends.
After he got killed, it came out he’d been dealing drugs. I can’t be certain, but his friends told me he’d been hooked. Just ran himself deeper and deeper into debt.
He was hit by a truck as he was trying to cross the E5 highway. Witnesses said he was being chased.
Was he running away from debt or was he running away from life itself? I can’t say. All in all he was just another fallen star.
In the predominant opinion of experts, labelling a young person as ‘deviant’, ‘delinquent’ or ‘pre-delinquent’ often contributes to the development of a consistent pattern of undesirable behaviour by young persons.
The Riyadh Guidelines
Prevention is the best remedy
There is a growing realisation that deprivation of liberty for children and adolescents is counter-productive. A significant number of professionals working with children in detention facilities readily concede that many, if not most, should quite simply not be locked up.
UNICEF guidelines on Children in Detention state that:
A proper approach to juvenile justice also requires that efforts be made to prevent children coming into contact with the law in the first place. This is an obligation at all levels, not least at government level.
Successful reduction of incidences of children coming into contact with the law requires that guidance and care should be provided to those children and adolescents who are most at risk of doing so.
The UNICEF child protection programme in Turkey focuses on work with children and adolescents in contact with the law and advocating for reforms within the juvenile justice system, encouraging the active role of Government to create a more protective environment for children and adolescents. The programme offers support to governmental and non-governmental agencies engaged in the protection of children and adolescents at risk of coming into contact with the law.
The UNICEF Factsheet on Children Deprived of Their Liberty and Juvenile Justice is available in pdf format. [PDF 823KB]
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SAY YES, SPRING 2004
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