vISITING FACILITIESContact visits should be the norm. The space allocated for visits should reflect this principle as well as the fact that a high proportion of women in prison are primary caregivers of dependent children. The design of visiting sections should include play areas and other areas where mothers can have meaningful contact with their children and other family members.68 These areas need to be large enough to allow a number of children to move around at the same time. Having regard to prevailing weather conditions, both indoor and outdoor visiting areas should ideally be provided. Food and drink should be allowed to be consumed in contact visit areas.Search facilities should be designed so as to protect the safety, privacy and dignity of women and their visitors, including visiting children.Where non-contact visiting is the only option, the facility should permit small children to see their mothers from a seated position and to communicate verbally with them.67 BR 42 (1) “Women prisoners shall have access to a balanced and comprehensive programme of activities which take account of gender-appropriate needs.” Other parts of this Rule concern programmes that seek to meet the needs of pregnant women, nursing mothers, women with children and women who have psychosocial support needs.68 UNODC, Handbook for Prison Managers and Policymakers on Women and Imprisonment, United Nations, New York,2008, pp. 61-63.
7. juveniLes
This chapter deals with issues concerning juvenile offenders in prison. Children have special characteristics and needs, both as a group and as individuals. Within that group, children have particular needs at different stages of their development and girls have specific needs. The recommendations in this chapter apply to imprisoned girls as well as boys (see also the recommendations in Chapter 6).The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as a boy or girl under the age of 18. The general recommendations in this
document and the handbook which it supplements also apply to children.
Reality
While international standards are reflected to some extent in the national legislation of many countries, the legislation and, even more so, current practice are often inadequate. Social welfare, judicial and prison systems lack knowledge, the capacity and the resources to deal with children, particularly when overwhelmed by large numbers of adult males. There are substantial differences in national understanding and definitions of childhood in terms of legal majority and criminal responsibility, which are sometimes different for girls and boys, and there is little knowledge of their emotional and physical development needs. This is exacerbated, in some cases, by the lack of birth registration documents and of alternative means of determining age. In many countries, therefore, children can be found who are serving both short and long prison sentences, in prison buildings and systems that provide no or inadequate space for physical exercise, education, vocational training or family visits. Children are even found among the adult prison population, at risk of physical abuse, subject to influences that are unlikely to develop their positive potential as members of society and without access to the services that could do so.
Good practice and operational implications
Prison is not a place where children can successfully grow up physically, psychologically, intellectually and emotionally. In fact, detention presents many risks for those who are less mature and often physically weaker. This is recognized in international standards and norms, which require that arrest, detention or imprisonment of children be used only for the shortest appropriate period of time and as a measure of last resort, and that children be kept separately from adults.69 International guidance also requires that conditions of detention for detained children be such as to support the objective of providing care, protection, education and vocational skills, promoting and sustaining health and self-respect, and encouraging attitudes and skills that can assist in devel- oping the children’s potential as members of society.70 The standards also draw attention to the fact that girls have particular needs.
A. ACCOMMODATION
Juveniles will ideally be accommodated on a site that is completely separate from where adults are housed and spend their time. In giving preference to a building and site which ensures that juveniles are completely separate from adults, prison authorities endeavour to meet the need of children for protection and to increase the likelihood that space and buildings will be used in a way that prioritizes and meets their special needs. Many States recognize in their prison law and/or regulations that when designing detention premises in which children will be housed, a larger per capita amount of space than that envisaged for individual adults is required.
69 See, for example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 6, para. 5, 10, para. 2 (b), and 10, para. 3), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (particularly Rules 5 (1), 8 (d), 21 (2), 71 (5) and 77 (1)), United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 50) and Additional Protocol I (Article 77), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 17, para. 1), Robben Island Guidelines (No. 36).
70 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules, Article 26) and the
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Article 12).
7. JUvENILES 65
Where it is not possible to provide a building on a separate site, children’s accommo- dation should be completely separate from that occupied by adults. For construction features and supporting practices that should provide protection from the possibility of contact between children and adults or breaches of children’s privacy by adults, see Chapter 6. Girls must be accommodated separately from boys (for further comments on the needs of girls, see also Chapter 6, Women, girls and dependent children).
Sleeping accommodation should normally consist of small group dormitories or indi- vidual bedrooms and permit such supervision as will ensure children’s protection,71 including from other children.72
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