IPS-English CHILE: Deaths of Teens Highlight Problems in Juvenile Justice System
 
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:05:14 -0700

 
Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Oct 22   (IPS)  - The deaths of eight teenagers between
the ages of 14 and 18 who set fire to the juvenile detention centre
where they were being held rekindled the debate on the conditions
in which a new law on the penal responsibility of adolescents began
to be implemented four months ago.

”We are sad. It is a pity that things like this have to happen to
jolt the conscience of the authorities,” Alicia del Basto, president
of the association of public employees of the governmental National
Service for Minors (SENAME), told IPS.

At around 10:00 PM on Sunday, some 30 adolescents in a detention
facility in Puerto Montt, a port city in southern Chile, set fire
to the furniture in their room. Eight of them died of smoke asphyxiation,
and two others have been declared brain dead.

According to the facility's staff, the youngsters began to riot when
they were told to turn off their TV sets and go to bed.

As part of their protest, they blocked the door of the room with
chairs, to keep the SENAME officials out, and then set fire to mattresses
and pillows. Three died of asphyxiation in the bathroom where they
had locked themselves in and the rest died in a nearby hospital while
receiving medical treatment.

All of the juvenile detainees were awaiting the results of the investigations
of their cases.

President Michelle Bachelet described the incident Monday as a ”painful
tragedy” that ”has thrown the country into mourning” and said she
had ordered an investigation to clarify what happened.

SENAME national director and Justice Minister Carlos Maldonado flew
to Puerto Montt early Monday.

”It was a time bomb,” said del Basto, who added however that no one
could have imagined ”that something like this could have happened
in the Puerto Montt facility because it was one of the centres that
functioned the best.”

”We believe the government is responsible,” she said, pointing to
the serious problems that have cropped up since the new system began
to be implemented -- issues that SENAME employees had warned of during
a strike held even before the law went into effect.

The new penal procedures apply to adolescents aged 14 to 18 at the
time of committing a crime.

Youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 face a maximum sentence
of five years in locked or semi-open juvenile detention centres, where
they participate in rehabilitation and social reinsertion programmes.
For 17 and 18-year-olds, the maximum sentence is 10 years.
Alternative sentences are parole, community service, and making reparations
for damages caused. Drug rehabilitation treatment is also made available.
According to del Basto, the functionaries informed SENAME director
Eugenio San Martín just a week ago of the ”complex situation” in the
country's juvenile correctional facilities.
She announced that in the next few days, the association of public
employees would send a letter to President Bachelet for the same purpose.

The families of the teenagers who died blame the tragedy on the facility's
staff, but del Basto said they ”did everything they could.”

She also refuted rumours that the youngsters were chained up, as
the press initially speculated.

”The staff can't carry out two different jobs. They can't be educators
and be in charge of security at the same time,” she said.

Del Basto called on the government to authorise members of the gendarmería
(prison guards) to be posted within the juvenile correctional facilities.
They currently provide security only on the outside, and are called
inside during emergencies.

She also complained of staff shortages and deficient infrastructure,
which make it impossible to carry out the scheduled educational workshops.
”Because it is a highly stressful job, a large proportion of employees
are on medical leave,” she said.

The majority of the facilities are on the verge of collapse, and
since they lack the necessary installations, youngsters cannot be
classified and separated according to age or type of crime, she said.
”There is unrest in all of the centres,” she added.

In the San Bernardo centre in Santiago, more than 90 adolescents
were injured in fights in September alone, she said.

SENAME authorities ”tell us that the new infrastructure (being built
to comply with the new law) will not be in place until 2010,” said
del Basto.
Law 20,084, which established the new system of criminal responsibility
for teenage offenders, was promulgated by former President Ricardo
Lagos (2000-2006) in November 2005, and since then has been at the
centre of controversy.
First, it was to go into effect in June 2006, but the executive branch
decided to postpone its entry into force for one year, as the necessary
infrastructure and training was not yet in place. 

In response, Congress amended the law, while at the same time creating
a committee of experts to oversee its implementation.
In several reports, the committee has warned that the shortcomings
have not been overcome, such as the existence of ”obstacles to standardised
rulings and problems with the legal and institutional design,” and
difficulties in ”education and training in the institutions.”
Critics have also expressed concern that SENAME lacks the capacity
to implement non-custodial penalties, and that teenagers sentenced
to community service or parole will as a result end up in closed or
semi-closed detention centres.
Another concern was that the new law does not make it clear what
offences are punishable, what the corresponding punishments are, and
what rules to follow to set the penalties, because judges must take
the penal code for adults as their guide, said critics. 
However, the old law allowed minors aged 16 to 18 to be tried as
adults if the authorities determined that they were capable of understanding
the wrong they had done. In that sense, the new law is seen as an
improvement.
Julio Cortés, a lawyer with the non-governmental Corporación Opción,
which works for children's rights, told IPS earlier that ”The text
that was eventually approved is very different from the original draft
law presented by the government, which wanted an autonomous juvenile
criminal justice system.”
Corporación Opción participated actively in the discussions of the draft law.
In mid-May, one month before the new system began to go into effect,
the government sent to Congress amendments to the draft law, due to
errors committed when it was drawn up. But several governing coalition
and opposition lawmakers took advantage of the review to stiffen sentences.

They established, for example, that 17 and 18-year-olds with sentences
of over five years must invariably remain at least two years in closed
detention centres, an aspect of the new law that was criticised by
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).


*****
+ CHILE: Criminal Responsibility of Teens in Limbo (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36817)
+ SENAME - in Spanish (http://www.sename.cl)


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