Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary:
In 1996, the most recent year for which
complete data is available, law
enforcement agencies in the USA made
about 2 million arrests of children
accused of violating criminal laws. INTRODUCTION
In 1996, the most recent year for which complete data is available,
law enforcement agencies in the USA made about 2 million arrests of
children accused of violating criminal laws. Once they enter the
justice systems of the USA, thousands of children experience
violations of their human rights protected by international law.
From the end of the last century, the USA was a world leader in the
development of a legal system specifically for children, with a
mandate to promote their welfare. However, during the last 10 years,
US authorities have increasingly prosecuted and punished children as
if they were adults, in the general criminal justice system. As a
consequence, children may be held for months in jails before they are
tried and often denied access to education and adequate opportunity
to exercise. Over 3,700 convicted children are sentenced to prisons
where they are not separated from adult prisoners, putting them at
serious risk of physical and sexual abuse. States have passed laws
that stop judges from considering each case on its merits, but
require them to impose long sentences on offenders regardless of age,
including life imprisonment without possibility of release.
US authorities have executed people for offences that they committed
when they were children in clear violation of international human
rights law. In June 1998, 70 people were on death row for crimes they
committed when they were under 18.
Even within the juvenile justice system, children's well-being is
often placed at risk rather than being protected. Thousands of
children are placed in custody when other action could or should have
been taken - a 10 year old boy handcuffed, arrested and locked up for
allegedly kicking his mother; a 13 year old girl detained on
suspicion of possessing marijuana, which turned out to be oregano.
Many facilities are seriously overcrowded and unable to provide
adequate mental health and other important services that children
need and to which they are entitled. Staff have subjected children in
custody to brutal physical force and cruel punishments, including
placing them in isolation for lengthy periods - in one case reported
to Amnesty International, a boy was held in isolation for over a year.
At every stage of the justice system, racial and ethnic minority
children are present in numbers greatly out of proportion to their
numbers in the community. The evidence strongly indicates that one
reason for this is discrimination on the part of the law enforcement
and justice system personnel. Girls are a small proportion of
children in custody and as a result, many facilities do not
adequately meet their special needs.
Some of the violations of the human rights of children described in
this report breach US laws as well as international standards. The
report contains recommendations to the US authorities to improve the
prevention, detection and correction of such violations.
Disturbingly, however, a number of the violations are sanctioned by
US laws. The USA has refused to implement fully the protection of the
human rights of children provided by international law. Children in
the USA should be no less entitled to this protection than children
of countries around the world. Amnesty International urges the US
federal governments to ratify without reservations all international
standards for the protection of children and calls upon all US
authorities to ensure that their laws, policies and practices are
fully consistent with these standards.
This report examines violations of a number of rights about which
Amnesty International has received information, and is primarily
concerned with children who are detained or imprisoned. It is not a
comprehensive report on violations of the human rights of children
involved with the US justice system. In the course of its research,
Amnesty International received reports of the violation of other
rights of children which the organisation has not had chance to
examine fully. The report includes a section on the use of the death
penalty against people who committed crimes when they were children;
Amnesty International has also released a more detailed report on
this issue, On the Wrong Side of History - Children and the Death
Penalty in the USA (AI Index: AMR 51/58/98, October 1998).
Owner: Rob Freer