The juvenile justice system currently offers “highly unsatisfactory” conditions under which young children are being detained and this is unacceptable, according to women and children’s advocate Karen DeSouza.
The issue of juveniles being treated as minor adults, particularly children under 13 years, has been a long running one and according to DeSouza, nothing has changed over the years. She said the current juvenile detention system is taking young boys and girls, “who are obviously in trouble and is acting in a way to further endanger them.”
Repeated calls have been sounded over the years for holding centres to house juveniles but to date there has been no real movement, De Souza said. She registered her outrage at the fact