Speaking for the Forgotten
The old adage, “children are to be seen and not heard,” was not supposed to apply to the justice system. Unfortunately, children can often become voiceless victims in an overburdened justice system that is lacking in resources. That is what Vijula Arulanantham, PF Sri Lanka Board chairperson, discovered when visiting a juvenile remand home recently. The children here were not all offenders. Many were victims— street children abandoned or neglected.
In this island country near southeast India, corporal punishment is
lawful and Vijula uncovered mistreatment of the children and poor
conditions in the remand home. Worse, many of the children had been
there for more than three years and had no pending court dates or
charges. Often the courts could not locate their parents and with no
place to go and no future date to call their cases, the children became
“forgotten by the system,” explains Vijula.
PF Sri Lanka immediately took steps to help them. They engaged a local
church, whose members were happy to visit the children—singing with
them, playing games and doing arts and crafts. With the help of the
warden, PF hired a teacher for the youth, as they cannot attend
school.
Then PF set about helping secure the release of the juveniles who
had not committed a crime. Vijula gathered the names of these children
and is working with Unicef to get their cases before the judge. They
are providing the children with legal counsel as part of the Prison
Fellowship Legal Aid Team (PFLAT) that PF Sri Lanka recently formed.
Drawing on junior lawyers who donate part of their time, the PF Legal
Aid Team helps bring legal advice
and representation to prisoners who cannot afford it.
Over the past three months, the Legal Aid Team has helped 15 adult
prisoners make applications for reduction of bail or for release. “In
some instances they do not even know under what charge they have been
placed in prison,” says Vijula. In just one of the country’s 32
prisons, there are 500 remand prisoners, many of whom have been there
for over 4 years, so the need is much greater than their current
resources. But the difference PF is making is
enormous.
Many have referred to these “no date” prisoners in the remand system as
“Sri Lanka’s Forgotten Citizens” because they languish for years in
prison. But the staff and volunteers of PF Sri Lanka do remember the
prisoner and they are bringing an effective voice to the voiceless
throughout the country.
This article first appeard in Prison Fellowship International's Global
Link Journal, September 2008.
September 2008
