Silvia is going through a very difficult time. Three of her children are living behind bars. Her two eldest sons are in an adult’s prison in the state of Chihuahua, and her youngest boy, Miguel, is in a juvenile detention facility in that same state. Silvia lives very far from both prisons, in a neighboring […]
This year we are starting a new project in Mexico City. We haven’t worked in the Mexico City juvenile detention centers for three years. Today was the first time that I have returned to the pretrial detention center in Mexico City. In 2013, on any given day there were 250 teens in the pretrial detention center, designed for 160. Today, there were 44! Of the six dormitories in the facility, only four have teens. There are over a hundred empty beds. We passed out school supplies to every single one teen. It was overwhelming to see so few children.
In 2013, after a year of working with the Superior Court of Justice in Mexico City, we presented a study recommending that they implement a “Pretrial Services Unit”. It would be only the second such unit for juveniles in all of Mexico. Last year, Mexico City’s juvenile pretrial detention services unit was fully operational. In addition, a new law that was passed means that juveniles no longer have to wait up to a month for a bail hearing but are guaranteed a bail hearing within two days of arrest. As a result, hundreds of children will never spend a single day in detention and hundreds more will be released at their bail hearing.
In 2013, we shone the light on the problems of excessive pretrial detention in Mexico City. This incredible transformation is due to leadership in the Superior Court, an acknowledgement that pretrial detention was excessive, and numerous nonprofit organizations contributing, training and advocating. Now, hundreds of children will avoid detention and as a result will have a chance at a better future. It felt good to come back and see the detention center that was nearly empty in part because of our work.
I will never see the faces of the children who did not get sent to pretrial detention. They will never know that our efforts helped to keep them out of detention. But today, it felt very good to not see them in detention.
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 […]
Alejandra smiled when I sat down at her table to talk with her. I met her for the first time two months ago. Today she was reading in the common area of the girl‘s cell block. It was a book of poems. Alejandra likes poetry and sometimes writes her own poems. We spoke for a […]
[:en]The teacher was preparing her lesson when we entered the empty classroom at 9:15 A.M. She had written a few math problems written on the chalkboard. We had brought a group of experts from the United States and we were on an official tour of the juvenile detention center in Chihuahua, Mexico. We started at […]
[:en]By Tamara Thompson Let me tell you about Gabriel, a 16-year-old boy from Chihuahua City I met recently during a visit to the juvenile detention center there. The first thing I saw was the back of Gabriel’s head, because he and all of the other boys in the cell block were ordered to turn with […]
[:en]Juvenile Justice Advocates International’s first ever summer legal intern started this week! We are welcoming Russel Payne to our team for the summer. Russell is a second year law student at the University of Minnesota law school in Minneapolis. This summer he will be interviewing detained children in Chihuahua, Mexico to help us learn more about […]
[:en] Just finished washing, drying and folding 15 towels. Why? Tomorrow we bring our second batch of Care Packages to the 15 girls at the Chihuahua juvenile prison. So today I am packing them all up, which includes washing all of the new towels that were donated. Learn More and consider sponsoring a Care Package[:]
Thursday I brought two suit cases full of toiletries for boys in prison in Chihuahua, Mexico. The prison director brought us into a dining hall and we handed out 20 packages of shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels and underwear. These boys were all from the sierra, or mountains. They come from extreme poverty. Most […]
We drove from Ciudad Juarez on the border with the United States, to the city of Chihuahua, the capital city of the state, in order to continue our Vision Trip. We meet with court officials, non-profits working with teens, and visited the detention center there. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
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.
