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April 7, 2020  |  By Douglas Keillor In COVID-19, News

Youth Detention and COVID-19

jjai-slide-covid19 Featured Image

The COVID-19 pandemic is a potential humanitarian disaster in juvenile detention centers around the world. 1.4 million children are locked behind bars, often in terrible conditions (detained for months or years waiting to see a judge, abused, extorted, living overcrowded, and under unsanitary conditions). They need to be in contact with their families to not only reduce depression and suicide, but to provide basic items not supplied by the government – food, soap, detergent, toilet paper and other essentials. 

Now, in countless countries facing the COVID-19 epidemic, juvenile detention centers are going on lock-down, removing “non-essential” staff such as teachers, psychologists, and social workers, leaving only security staff, and barring families from visiting their children. 

Juvenile Justice Advocates International is responding as fast as possible to:

  • Publish recommendations to minimize health, mental health and human rights impacts for children (click here to read our recommendations).
  • Engage decision makers in Mexico and across Latin America to implement these recommendations.
  • Work directly with detention facilities to change policies and provide basic supplies such as cell phones for children to call families, soap for children to wash hands, and games and activities to replace lost programming. 
  • Coordinating data collection and with 20 law schools and 100+ law students to determine what policies governments are implementing in juvenile detention during the crisis.

Join us

Contribute to help support our COVID-19 response

Join our weekly webinars on COVID-19 and juvenile detention (Spanish Only)

Watch our March 26th Webinar on COVID-19 and Challenges to the Juvenile Justice System in Mexico – Spanish only:

Watch our April 2nd Webinar on COVID-19 and Actions for Courts and Youth Detention Centers – Spanish only:

Watch our April 9th Webinar on COVID-19, Humanitaria Crisis for Youth in Detention in Latin America – Spanish only:

COVID-19 Resources for Youth Detention 

Juvenile Justice Advocates – JJAI Expresses Concern for the Health Conditions and Capacity of Youth Detention Centers During the COVID-19 Outbreak

UNICEF – Children in detention are at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 and should be released

Protecting Prison Populations from Infections Coronavirus Disease – ICRC

Annie E. Casey Foundation – Juvenile Justice Priorities During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

(Spanish Only) Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos – Medidas cautelares a todas las autoridades del sistema penitenciario nacional

(Spanish Only) Equis Justicia Para las Mujeres A.C. – MÉXICO DEBE CAMBIAR PRÁCTICAS DE DETENCIÓN Y DESPRESURIZAR SUS CÁRCELES ANTE PANDEMIA DE COVID-19

Fair Trials – The Public Health Need to Keep People out of Detention – Practical Guidance

Penal Reform – Coronavirus: Healthcare and human rights of people in prison

(Spanish Only) Save the Children Mexico – Proteger los derechos de las niñas y niños ante la contingencia sanitaria por el COVID-19

Children’s Commissioner – Calling on the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to ensure the rights of children in custody are upheld during the coronavirus outbreak

Vera Institute of Justice – Guidance for preventive and responsive measures to coronavirus for jails, prisons, immigration detention and youth facilities

World Health Organization – Preventing COVID-19 outbreak in prisons: a challenging but essential task for authorities

Safeguarding the Right to a Fair Trial During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Remote Criminal Justice Proceedings – Fairtrials

#coronavirus abuse adolescents covid-19 covid19 depression epidemic humanitarian disaster isolation
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Webinar on COVID-19, Humanitaria Crisis for Youth in Detention in Latin America – Spanish only:

https://youtu.be/3MOSFq_hE1M

March 26th Webinar on COVID-19 and Challenges to the Juvenile Justice System in Mexico – Spanish only:

https://youtu.be/52zianCu_3A

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How the U.S. exports failed policies:

  • International Funding

The U.S. funds more police, court, prosecutor and prison development projects around the world than any other funder.

  • Prison Accreditation.

With U.S. financial support, the American Correctional Association (ACA) has accredited prisons in Mexico, Columbia and the United Arab Emirates. Many of these facilities have documented histories of grave human rights abuses, systemic child abuse and cartel infiltration despite accreditation and re-accreditation by the ACA.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s report on the failure of the ACA in the U.S. shows why the U.S. should not be funding the ACA overseas.

  • Police Training

U.S. police officers with documented histories of misconduct are hired by the U.S. State Department and sent to developing countries to train police units. 

  • Mass Incarceration and Plea Bargaining 

U.S.-backed plea-bargaining reforms have proliferated across the globe, endangering defendants’ rights to a trial and incentivizing excessive bail and pretrial detention.

  • Drug War Policies

Drug war policies have led to the dramatic growth of incarceration in Latin America, particularly of women. 

  • U.S Criminal Justice Sold as the “Gold Standard”

There is often an assumption that U.S. practices and policies represent a “higher standard,” are “more modern” and “more professional.” 

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  • Rejecting Key International Laws

The US is not a party to key human rights treaties governing criminal justice, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child  and the American Convention on Human Rights despite the fact that nearly every country where the U.S. promotes its practices are parties to these international instruments.

  • Prioritizing Security Interests over Human Rights

Security, not human rights or community safety, is the priority of the U.S. criminal justice’s foreign investments. This can undermine local reforms to limit police and prosecutor power or reduce incarceration.


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“Convention on the Rights of the Child”

“A Broken Prison and Detention Facility Accreditation System That Puts Profits Over People,” the Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, December 2020. 

“How Washington Exports Failed Criminal Justice Policies,”  Douglas Keillor, The Crime Report, August 27, 2020.

“Prison: America’s Most Vile Export?” Baz Dreisinger, The Atlantic, September 30, 2015.

“Rights of persons deprived of liberty and privatization of the penitentiary system in Mexico,” Hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, ACHR, April 7, 2016.

“Privatización del sistema penitenciario en México,” Documenta, et al, 2016. 

“Defund the Global Policeman”, Studart Schrader,  n+1 Magazine, Issue 38, Fall 2020, 

Schrader, Stuart (2019) Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing, University of California Press.


Guerrero

Después de años de lucha y problemas de inseguridad, decidimos en 2022 cerrar nuestro proyecto en Guerrero. Pudimos implementar nuestro instrumento de evaluación previa al juicio para garantizar que los jóvenes de bajo riesgo permanezcan en sus comunidades. Y brindamos apoyo a más de 220 jóvenes, como parte de nuestro proyecto de Movilizando Voluntarios.

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Chiapas

Por invitación del Poder Judicial del Estado de Chiapas, realizamos un estudio para evaluar la viabilidad de implementar nuestros proyectos en la región. En 2022, nuestro equipo presentó los resultados y recomendaciones. El gobierno estatal ahora está decidiendo cómo quieren colaborar con nosotros en el futuro.

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Guerrero

After years of struggle and security issues, we decided in 2022 to close our project in Guerrero. We were able to implement our pretrial screening instrument to ensure low-risk youth stay in their communities. And we provided support to over 220 youths, as part of our Mobilize and Empower project.

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Chiapas

In the state of Chiapas, at the invitation of the state judiciary, we conducted a study to assess the viability of implementing our projects. In 2022, our team presented the results and recommendations. The state government is now deciding how they want to collaborate with us in the future.

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CDMX

Vista como líder nacional en las prácticas del sistema de justicia, la Ciudad de México tiene más adolescentes en detención que cualquier otra jurisdicción. Sin embargo, también ha desarrollado una unidad de seguimiento en libertad con numerosas alianzas con organizaciones. Nuestros proyectos fortalecerán esta área crítica.

JJI está trabajando en la Ciudad de México desde dos vertientes. En Alternativas a la Detención con un monitoreo que comenzó en 2019, pero por causas sanitarias y la pandemia por COVID, se retomó dos años después con un equipo de especialistas el cual ya está preparándose para continuar la actividad. En Movilizando voluntarios, se continúa con los esfuerzos para reunir a más adolescentes con sus familias, gracias al apoyo: “Reunificación familiar”. Así como también se han realizado entrega de enseres en los 6 centros.

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Durango

A pesar de tener un número menor de adolescentes en el sistema de justicia, Durango es una jurisdicción que busca la mejora continua. Durango es el primer estado donde tanto el poder judicial como el ejecutivo han firmado convenios de colaboración para la implementación de nuestros proyectos de Alternativas a la Detención.

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Chihuahua

Chihuahua es nuestro sitio piloto y un estado considerado líder en la reforma penal en México. Nuestros proyectos comenzaron en el 2016. Desde entonces, los tiempos en detención preventiva han disminuido, los adolescentes son supervisados con mayor eficiencia en sus comunidades y se ha mejorado la calidad de vida de aquellos adolescentes que siguen privados de su libertad.

En Chihuahua trabajamos con varios proyectos, como son el monitoreo que se trabaja en conjunto con la autoridad, y con los adolescentes y sus familias trabajamos en talleres, mesas de trabajo, eventos lúdicos, acompañamiento post penal, reubicaciones y traslados de familiares para audiencias y visitas, así como donaciones de enseres, ropa y material deportivo.

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Chihuahua

A national leader in criminal procedural reforms, our pilot project in Chihuahua started in 2016. Since that time the rates and duration of pretrial detention have declined, youth are being successfully supervised in their communities and new programs in the detention center have improved daily life for those children still deprived of liberty.

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CDMX

Looked to as the national leader in youth justice practices, Mexico City has more youth in detention than any other jurisdiction but has also developed a robust probation office and numerous alliances with nonprofits. Our projects will further fortify this critical work.

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Durango

Despite being a smaller jurisdiction, Durango is constantly looking to improve. Durango is the first state where both the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch have signed Memorandum of Understanding to launch the Alternatives to Detention initiatives.

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