Facing an Increasing Crisis in Security, Mexican Teenagers Face Prison Without Trial Marta Rodriguez - The World Weekly
go to original May 15, 2017

Teenagers facing homicide and robbery charges practice yoga in a detention center in Mexico City (Omar Torres/AFP/Getty Images)

Last week, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that teenagers aged between 14 and 18 who are thought to have committed severe crimes will go to prison before the trial. The ruling has aroused controversy since it arrives after a report by UNICEF and Mexico’s interior ministry showed that the system was failing to reintegrate minors into society after confinement.

Supreme Court Minister Jorge Pardo Rebolledo justified his decision by saying provisional prison is an exceptional measure to protect children from the grip of organized gangs. Yet the Mexican National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) condemned the ruling in a statement, criticising that minors would no longer have the opportunity to defend themselves in court.

Out of 10 million teenagers in Mexico, 11,000 have been accused of a crime and, of these, 2,700 are in confinement. Asked by The World Weekly why this figure was so low, Elena Azaola, author of the UNICEF report, said “we must take into account the weakness of our institutions investigating crimes.”

Until now, teenagers have been confined for three to five months in detention centres, which, according to Ms. Azaola, lack the resources needed to give them education, training and treatment.

Read the rest at The World Weekly

Related: Only 56 of 389 Prisons in Mexico Meet Standards (Mexico News Daily)

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