mB reporT 93
Sarah’s story
“If I’d had counselling
I wouldn’t have done
what I did”
s
arah is now 17. she spent a few months in
the correctional centre a few years ago and
was a “hard bone to chew’’ according to a former
teacher at the institution.
“I no longer teach there because I couldn’t
accept the system. I just could not accept it”, the
teacher said. she does admit that the children’s
basic needs are taken care of in terms of food,
hygene and formal education.
The teacher remembers sarah well but her
case is just one among many others: “The same
problems, the same lack of sensitivity by the
wardens and by the system. The children are put
there without their psychological needs attended
to.’’ Taking sarah’s case as an example, the
teacher explains: “she was incarcerated for being
a ‘rebel’.”
“She was
Without getting into too many details of
sarah’s case, the teacher added that the young
incarcerated
girl was spending nights with a boyfriend in a
karaoke bar, having a kind of life her parents just
for being could not accept.
a rebel”
“I used to speak to her often and once told
her about meeting boys and what being in a
relationship meant. she never had such chats
with anyone, girls’ talk, not even at home and did
not realise she was too young to spend nights
out with a boy or a man. she knew nothing about
being in love or in a relationship and thought what
she did was normal and meant something.”
after a while, and before sarah left the
institution to face the real word again, she told
the teacher that if they had met before her time
in prison she would have lived her life much
differently.
What about the solitary confinement? “yes,
there are rooms for that purpose, basically it is
a room with a bed and a whole on the floor as a
toilet. It is not new, it looks old, but it looks clean”.
J.P.
juridical system you have children being put into individual rooms, but given their them what are we supposed to do?” the
judged as adults at 12 years old. In the free time and time outdoors, with oth- advisor adds.
United Stated there have been cases of ers,” the advisor says. Diamantino dos Santos guarantees
children of 10 being judged as adults in When the new Young Offenders that solitary confinement for both adults
homicide cases.” Educational Regime was drafted and and minors “happens only under a strict-
In terms of the use ‘solitary confine- enforced last October the advisor said: ly controlled environment. It is not a law-
ment’ in official documents, the advisor “Every single international rule was tak- less situation.”
says the word ‘isolation’ should have en into consideration and when we say
been used because “there is no solitary solitary confinement, one must under- Legal position
confinement for minors in jails in Macau. stand what it means. It is not like we are
We have isolation, but strictly supervised torturing the teenagers and leaving them Law 2/2007, which establishes the new
by a judge. These cases happen when dis- days and night unattended.’’ Young Offenders Educational Regime,
ciplinary measures are needed for cases “When teenagers are violent and rep- clearly states that confinement can be ap-
that are considered serious. Children are resent a potential threat to others around plied to a minor either as a disciplinary
february 2009
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