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HRW'S Summary of the publication
Too many children are being held prisoner in Colorado, and as a
result they live in crowded conditions that are sometimes unsafe
and frequently devoid of activities that would prepare them to be
useful citizens when they are released. One institution is so bad
it is operating under a court order. Another, a private institution
with children from several states, so appalled officials from Idaho
that it withdrew its inmates. These are among the highlights of
our examination of juvenile detention in Colorado, a state whose
snowcapped mountains and crisp air offers an image that is too
often belied by its institutions. Human Rights Watch visited
institutions, interviewed children, staff members, judges and
others, and reviewed the increasingly punitive legislation
governing the courts' treatment of people in "the system" under
the age of eighteen. Like many states, it is moving away from
programs and toward ever-increasing punishment. It is turning its
back on children in its care by sending them to private facilities
both in and out of state. It is flooding its institutions with young
people without taking into account the fact that the vast majority
will return to society. Conditions in Colorado institutions often
violate U.S. constitutional standards as well as those found in the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of
their Liberty. In this report, we make a series of
recommendations regarding the human rights aspects of
imprisonment in children's facilities in Colorado.