Juvenile Justice Advocates International showed the results of the pilot entitled: “Supervision of measures in freedom for adolescents in conflict with the law”, in the Superior Court of Justice of Chihuahua. At the event, it was explained that the tool was carried out on 52 adolescents from different regions of Chihuahua who had non-custodial sanction […]
Special post by Rebecca Rosefelt, our 2017 Summer Intern: I had prepared myself for the worst. Over the year I’d read a variety of articles and stories on prison: stories about inmates who fought for prison education; a journalist who went undercover as a correctional officer; an exposé on visiting relatives who were molested by […]
This summer, Rebecca Rosefelt, a law student at the University of Minnesota, is our legal intern. Rebecca is spending her summer in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua city interviewing detained teenagers, helping present workshops on prisoner rights to teens and families, and conducting research on international standards for juvenile detention. “I am really excited to help develop tools […]
Our first “Know Your Rights” workshop with juveniles and family members at the CERSAI juvenile detention center in Ciudad Juárez… Saturday, March 18th we were very excited to begin our “Know Your Rights” workshop, in collaboration with the State Human Rights Commission of Chihuahua and the Chihuahua Public Defender’s Office. After many weeks of planning, […]
By Olivia Meneses Coordinator of the Mobilize Volunteers Project This is the second time we have completed Family Reunification in Chihuahua. This time I coordinated it remotely from Mexico City, but I would still like to share some of the stories of families and the teenagers. This time there were four mothers that we helped by […]
This past weekend, we started our monthly “Family Reunification” project for children in prison in Chihuahua state. Olivia Meneses, our project director, worked with the prison´s list of four teenagers who have not had visitors for months. They all live at least three hours outside the city and come from extreme poverty. We arranged bus […]
Part 4: Two boys, one seeing his mother for the first time in 11 months, one seeing his mother for the last time Olivia and Amanda returned from Chihuahua state on Monday after three very busy days with our Family Reunification Project – helping families visit their children in prison. Each one has a story. Olivia […]
Part 3: Normalizing the Trauma and Dehumanizing Kids Our Family Reunification Project and the “Every Child Has a Story” documentary heads out this weekend to Chihuahua state. The goal is to help families who cannot afford to visit their children in prison get transportation to the facilities. We are documenting the stories and taking photographs […]
Part 2: Olivia calls the family (Read Part 1) Last week, Olivia, our project coordinator, received the list of teenagers in the detention centers in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua who do not receive visitors because their families are too poor. Sixteen children’s names, some with home addresses, some with phone numbers for their parents, some […]
Part 1: Leaps of Faith Two years ago this month we completed our “Dia de Visita” photography documentary project. My wife Amanda took the photographs and I interviewed children and their families on visiting day at the detention center. It was quite a challenge to get permission and finally complete interviews with children and parents […]
The U.S. funds more police, court, prosecutor and prison development projects around the world than any other funder.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
