Say Yes, Winter 2008: Seeds of a fresh start for juveniles in custody (1)

Life is not easy for the 2,750 child suspects and offenders living in penal institutions. However, conditions are improving and with EU financial support UNICEF has been playing its part. Say Yes reports from an Ankara detention centre.

Mehmet (not his real name) sits at his new desk. He has just returned from his weekly hour and a half in the library. The door of his room is open, leading to the communal space which he shares with eight of his peers: the hall where they play table tennis, the yard where they will play volleyball again after the snowmen melt. He misses his family and friends, the night air, drinking tea from a glass made of glass … But there are activities every day, and they can use the gym and the outdoor pitch every week. He is learning to keep his temper.

From the outside, the Ankara Child and Youth Closed Penal Institution, a detention centre located on a Justice Ministry campus at Sincan, on the western edge of Ankara, resembles a typical prison with its watchtowers, floodlights, gendarmes and high, concrete perimeter wall. Inside, however, the three year–old purpose–built facility is full of surprises. The sports facilities and visiting area are of dimensions that would be the envy of many a private secondary school (Even a closed institution can contain open spaces!) There are also fully–equipped workshops for ceramics and copperware, welding and textiles — to say nothing of the computer room and the many meeting rooms which are used for exam preparation, hygiene and health seminars, staff training sessions and many other events.

The corridors are bare, if wide, and the windows are barred. Yet here and there the residents and their teachers have brightened doorways with shining painted landscapes and decorated the walls with posters on themes that include HIV/AIDS and Children’s Rights.

Everybody has his own room. The facility is built for 320, and with 285 in residence — of whom 108 are under eighteen — there are few empty beds. Indeed, young people aged 18–21 have at times had to be moved on to other institutions to make way for newly–detained children, who are given priority. Nevertheless, there is no sense of crowding as guards and visiting teachers mingle easily with small groups of residents learning how to cut hair, plant trees or play chess.

Setting children apart

The Ankara detention centre and a smaller centre in Kayseri reflect the efforts being made by the Ministry of Justice to improve conditions for children in custody, to educate and rehabilitate them, and to prevent them from coming into contact with the law again.

The legislative infrastructure was renewed in 2005, when the Penal Code and the Law on the Execution of Penalties were amended, and a new Child Protection Law was adopted. Among other changes, the minimum age of criminal responsibility was raised from 11 to 12 and remission of sentence for children was increased.

As for physical infrastructure, detention centres similar to the Ankara institution are due to open in İstanbul in 2–3 months and İzmir in 2–3 years. At present, under–eighteens are frequently held in children’s blocks in adult prisons — stressful institutions, sometimes overcrowded, which lack special facilities for juveniles or guards dedicated to them. This limits the educational and recreational activities available and increases the risks of violence and of bullying and sexual abuse among the children.

Our policy is that wherever there are more than 50 children they should be held in separate institutions, says Kenan İpek, Director General of Prisons and Detention Centres at the Ministry. And we are moving rapidly in that direction.

Open homes

In fact, the Turkish justice system has long envisaged that under–eighteens should serve their sentences in open reformatories called Education Homes, rather than behind bars. Education Homes are our source of pride, says İpek.

There are not many other examples in the world. The children live like children of their age group live outside. They go to normal schools. The personnel are like their parents.

There are currently three Education Homes in İzmir, Ankara and Elazığ, in the western, central and eastern parts of the country respectively. İzmir is the only one to house girls, who account for only about 5% of children in contact with the law. The Ministry is planning to open a fourth Education Home in the İstanbul area.

İpek continues:

As a next step, this person is going to be released. So we believe he should get used to being inside society — to continue at a normal school. Actually, he is a victim too — a victim of the crime, of the people around him, of society.

The catch is that the young offenders can only be sent to education homes after their sentences have been finalised. And with the process of initial trial and appeal to the High Court lasting for an average of eighteen months, that adds up to long stays in the detention centres or prisons. Of the 2,750 children in criminal justice institutions, only a small fraction have confirmed sentences. Like Mehmet, 90% of the adolescents at Sincan are still awaiting a verdict. Some will serve their time without ever reaching an Education Home.

The education Homes offer much better opportunities. We want their cases to go through the High Court as quickly as possible so that they can be transferred to the Education Homes, says İpek, but we are also trying to make sure that their time in the detention centres is spent well.

A question of staffing

Neither enlightened laws nor quality buildings are of any use unless institutions are adequately staffed. Aided by modern technology, the 138 members of staff at the Ankara detention centre — including teachers, psychologists and social workers — are sufficient to monitor and support the residents at all times, even when a wide range of activities are under way. But for Director General İpek, even this is not good enough. While he admits to a deficit of personnel in the prison system as a whole, he is determined to maximise staffing levels in institutions responsible for children. A ratio of 1:1 staff to children would be ideal, he suggests.

The problem faced by Muammer Seyitoğlu, the director of the Ankara detention centre, when it first opened was not the number of personnel but their knowledge and abilities. The institution was new and 80% of the staff were new. Nobody knew anything, he recalls. Fortunately, the Ministry has also embarked on a major effort to increase the capacity of its employees.

Since 2000, four regional training centres have been opened and a fifth is under way. One of the most important training programmes in use for those dealing with juvenile suspects and offenders is the Ardıç Programme developed and designed with EU financial support through the joint efforts of the Ministry and UNICEF.

Continue to Seeds of a fresh start for juveniles in custody (2).

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