Jakarta – Children's rights activists are pushing for the passage of the juvenile criminal justice system bill that aims to provide more protection for and guarantee the rights of juvenile delinquents in the country.
The bill has been shelved pending further evaluation of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry. The ministry's Director General for Human Rights, Harkristuti Krisnowo, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the ministry targeted to submit the bill to legislators this month.
"We have finished the evaluation process. However, the bill is required to go through an administration process before it is turned in to the minister and later to the President," she said, adding the bill would be forwarded to legislators once the procedure above was completed.
The activists have demanded the bill be brought into deliberation next year.
"The current 1997 Juvenile Justice Law has failed to accommodate alternatives to incarceration for youth committing petty crimes. In addition, we want to raise the age limit of criminal prosecution for juveniles from eight to 12," Edy Ikhsan, head of the executive committee for the National Network for Protection of Children in Conflict with the Law, told the Post.
The network recorded that there were more than 3,000 children who were in conflict with the law in five large cities – Surabaya, Banda Aceh, Bandung, Medan, and Jakarta – in 2009.
The ministry also revealed that about 6,300 young offenders were either incarcerated or litigated last year. The bill, drafted by NGOs, academics and the government, will also include "a diversion program" to channel youth offenders aged 12 and under out of the country's inadequate juvenile justice system.
Edy explained the diversion program was linked to the concept of restorative justice, under which young offenders were required to meet their victims through mediation, and family-group or community conferencing, to reach a peaceful resolution.
"However, if delinquents are more than 12 years old, the investigators must determine the degree of crime they committed."
He added that if young offenders were charged with a crime that carried a prison term of less than seven years, they would still qualify for the diversion program. Otherwise, they will be processed under the new juvenile justice system that provides greater protection for children and youths.
Edy said there were only 13 poorly maintained juvenile detention centers across the country, which are also often used to accommodate an overflow from local jails, meaning juvenile convicts are exposed to abuse by adult criminals. For instance, the Tanjung Agusta juvenile hall in Medan, North Sumatra, supposed to house no more than 250 juveniles, is holding about 600 convicts of all ages. Another report from the network reveals that the Suka Miskin juvenile hall in Bandung, West Java, places between six to eight youth offenders in a 2.5 x 4 meter prison cell, supposed to accommodate only two juvenile inmates.
Bill drafter Agustinus Pohan, also a law professor at the Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, said there should be a massive overhaul of such detention centers. "The rehabilitation of children and youth offenders have to focus on education because putting them in prison will only do more harm than good."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to implement a new social services system to support the vulnerable, including children having problems with the law. Separately, Tjatur Sapto Edy, a legislator from the House of Representatives' Commission III on legal affairs, said supported efforts to improve the country's juvenile justice system.
"Children can't be treated the same way as adults before the law. I went to a juvenile hall recently and met a 9-year-old who had been convicted of stealing a 3 kg gas canister. He is now serving a 14-month prison term. It just doesn't make any sense," he said. (tsy)