The Neustrelitz prison in Germany seems an absurdity compared to the ‘munda ward’ of Tihar jail or juvenile homes across India. Set in the quiet countryside of West Pomerania, it houses 150 men and women between the ages of 19 and 25 who serve time under juvenile law. They have access to education, regular therapy and even time with rabbits as therapy. And, as a group of American journalists recently found out, they can talk to the media. Indian wardens would probably get apoplectic about such proposals.
In June 2015, Neustrelitz was part of a visit by the US magazine Vice and the Marshall Project to research alternatives to the US model of criminal justice. While we are looking at the US for cues, they are trying to solve growing figures of jail violence and recidivism. There are states in the US with no minimum age of criminal responsibility: even a child of 10 may be tried as an adult. No wonder it’s also the country with the highest proportion of imprisoned youth.
Germany, on the other hand, saw its juvenile crime rate dropping 6.9 per cent in 2011, with violent crime by teenagers falling by an impressive 9.9 per cent. The success of caring juvenile prisons in Germany makes a persuasive case for activists pushing for extending the age for trial under juvenile law to at least 21, as in that country. Trying a juvenile as an adult has been clearly found to aggravate repeat offences.
And given the alarming rise of juvenile crime in India, we would do well to go easy on juvenile offenders. As Jhuma Sen, a Berkeley-trained rights lawyer and professor, says, “In a criminal justice system as flawed as ours, incarceration serves little purpose. It reduces chances of re-integration into society, the possibility of education and employability and, more dangerously, sends them back to society as criminals.”
