The awful conditions of Greek juvenile prisons

The following blog will be much more serious than all the others I have written until now, but I did it on purpose. Some years ago I had to write an essay about the situation in Greek juvenile prisons. I hadn't had a clue what is going on and generally how the system works, but after writing the essay I learn a lot of important information that I would like to share with you now.

So let's begin.

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The Greek constitution contains a number of solemn proclamations affecting the status of children : That childhood shall be under the protection of the State, that families with a large number of children, war orphans, and everyone who suffers from incurable physical or mental illness have the right to special care by the State, and that the latter also have the right to enjoy measures that secure and facilitate their independence, their professional integration and their participation in the financial, political and social life of the country. It also states that the State cares for the health of its citizens and takes special measures for the protection of the children. Furthermore, it proclaims that housing for those in need is the responsibility of the State. Another guiding principle enshrined in the Greek constitution and legislation that also has a bearing on children, is the prohibition of discrimination based on race, gender, physical or mental disability, language and social status.

While the constitution does not further elaborate on the scope and the extent of these general pronouncements, subsequent statutes and secondary legislation that have been enacted are based on the constitutional mandate to secure the rights of children and prohibit discrimination. Furthermore, the various policies, services and programs designed for children that are adopted and implemented by the State at a central or regional level and that are discussed below reflect to a large extent the country’s efforts to protect its children.Nevertheless, Greece still faces numerous challenges, especially in the areas of violence against women and children, trafficking in persons and discrimination against Roma children.

In Greece, children under the age of 15 constitute about 15, 5% of the overall population (approx. 11 million), which is below the average percentage in the European Union.Greece, as other European countries, has experienced in the last few years, a high rate of influx of immigrants. As a result, a new multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society has emerged. There are approximately 130. 000 immigrant students, mostly from Albania and other Balkan countries, that attend local schools and benefit from the services and programs offered by the Greek state.

There is no centralised agency designated to provide care and assistance and to supervise the various services provided by the State. Instead, a number of government agencies are responsible for providing social welfare and health services, as well as free education and child care. Generally speaking, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is responsible for health services, and the Ministry of Social Assistance is responsible for assistance to children who are vulnerable, that is orphans, the handicapped and trafficked children. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of the Interior have joint responsibility at the national level for early childhood care. Local authorities are responsible for pre-schools and child care services; the Ministry of Education supervises the early childhood programs at the national level.

The Greek Civil Code defines a child indirectly. Articles 34 through 36 state that a person, from the moment of its birth, is subject to rights and obligations, as long as it is born alive, irrespective of its viability. From the civil law perspective, minors attain the age of majority upon completion of the seventeenth year. Since 2003, for criminal law purposes, the age of majority has been raised from the seventeenth year to the eighteenth.

Institutions Dealing Specifically with Children’s Rights

Greece has established the following institutions designed to tackle issues and questions related to children:

• The National Observatory on the Rights of Children, to ensure effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Children;
• The Department of Children’s Rights;
• The Child Health Institute, in the area of child abuse and neglect; and
• The National Human Rights Committee.

While the first three deal exclusively with children’s rights, the jurisdiction of the fourth is broader and includes anyone whose human rights are infringed upon.

Department of Children’s Rights

The Department of Children’s Rights was established within the office of the Greek Ombudsman in 2003, by law 3094/2003. The scope of its mandate is to investigate actions, omissions, or any complaints about individuals and legal entities that violate the rights of children or endanger their well-being. The Department is composed of a Deputy Ombudsman and fifteen investigators with expertise in a variety of areas. During the first year following its establishment, the Ombudsman and his team established closer relations with agencies working with children and reviewed a number of complaints issued either by minors themselves or by adults about infringements of children rights. During the period 2004-2005, the Department accomplished the following:

• published a leaflet on “Defending Children’s Rights” designed to raise public awareness about the role of the Child Ombudsman and the services provided by his office. It is disseminated to schools and other institutions working with children;
• created a special website for children and those interested in the well-being of children and a free telephone line for children in need;
• published and distributed a booklet on “Guidelines for the Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Minors, ” in cooperation with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the objective of safeguarding the rights of those children who arrive in Greece without any escort or who are separated from relatives;
• assisted the Ministry of Justice in the preparation of a new law on corporal punishment;
• within the framework of a project undertaken in cooperation with the Council of Europe, the Deputy Ombudsman exchanged visits with institutions working on children rights in neighbouring countries in order to promote exchange of information and best practices.

Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency, also known as "juvenile offending", is the participation in illegal behaviour by minors (juveniles, i. e. individuals younger than the statutory age of majority). Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centres, and courts. Depending on the type and severity of the offence committed, it is possible for people under 18 to be charged and treated as adults.

In recent years a higher proportion of youth have experienced arrests by their early 20s than in the past, although some scholars have concluded this may reflect more aggressive criminal justice and zero-tolerance policies rather than changes in youth behaviour. Juvenile crimes can range from status offences (such as underage smoking), to property crimes and violent crimes. However, juvenile offending can be considered normative adolescent behaviour. This is because most teens tend to offend by committing non-violent crimes, only once or a few times, and only during adolescence. Repeated and/or violent offending is likely to lead to later and more violent offences. When this happens, the offender has often displayed antisocial behaviour even before reaching adolescence.

Juvenile delinquency, or offending, can be separated into three categories:

• delinquency, crimes committed by minors, which are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system;
• criminal behaviour, crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system;
• status offences, offences that are only classified as such because one is a minor, such as truancy, also dealt with by the juvenile courts.

According to the developmental research of Moffitt (2006), there are two different types of offenders that emerge in adolescence. One is the repeat offender, referred to as the life-course-persistent offender, who begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive behaviour in adolescence (or even childhood) and continues into adulthood; and the age specific offender, referred to as the adolescence-limited offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency begins and ends during their period of adolescence. Because most teenagers tend to show some form of antisocial, juice or delinquent behaviour during adolescence, it is important to account for these behaviours in childhood in order to determine whether they will be life-course-persistent offenders or adolescence-limited offenders. Although adolescence-limited offenders tend to drop all criminal activity once they enter adulthood and show less pathology than life-course-persistent offenders, they still show more mental health, substance abuse, and finance problems, both in adolescence and adulthood, than those who were never delinquent.

Social factors

There are some social factors that can lead a juvenile to commit an illegal act. Some of them are :

1. The family: Quite often, the minors who commit some outlaw action, come from ‘’problematic families’’. The relationship between the child and the family plays an important role for his later development. Thus, children that have been abused or have grown up in inadequate family environment, minors that have been neglected by their parents, have more probabilities to develop delinquent behaviour.
2. The cultural environment: There are a lot of studies that try to connect the danger of delinquency with the life in disorganised – slums. These areas possessed the biggest rate of poverty and unemployment as well as individuals with social and psychological problems, with result the majority of young people being participants of gangs and activities as vandalism and drug usage.
3. Modern means of communication: The new means of communication – media- who are addressed to the mass population, have replaced the communication until now. They have been accused of appearing excessive messages of a general social decadence contributing in cynicism and generally in the outlaw attitude of young people. At the same time, the disproportion between the picture of an unrealistic world and the weakness of discovering the means to conquest it, often lead to delinquency.

Juvenile Justice

In 2003, the juvenile justice system underwent significant changes. The impetus for these changes was the desire to harmonise the criminal law provisions with those of the Convention of the Rights of the Child and also to bring the juvenile system in line with the constitutional mandate regarding the responsibility of the state to protect children.

Some cosmetic changes are noteworthy, since they reflect a changed attitude of the society at large and of the criminal justice system in particular towards criminal acts committed by minors. First, the word ‘’delinquent’’ was eliminated from those articles of the Criminal Code dealing with minors. Secondly, rather than confinement in an institution, the term ‘’ confinement in a special institution for minors ‘’ was used. Another important change concerns the lower and upper limits of the period during which a person is considered a minor for the purposes of criminal responsibility. These were changed from seven to seventeen years of age to eight and eighteen. Since the Constitution defines a child as anyone under the age of eighteen, without further differentiation, the Criminal Code has now been brought into line with the Convention.

Criminal Responsibility

The Criminal Code absolves a minor between the age of eight and thirteen from any criminal responsibility for wrongdoing. Such a person is subject only to reformative or therapeutic measures. If a minor at the time of commission of a criminal offence has completed the 13th year of age, the court takes into consideration all the circumstances surrounding the case and may decide that it is optimal to order the confinement of the minor in a special institution for youth for a specific period of time. Confinement may last from five years to twenty years, if the same act committed by an adult would require confinement from ten years to life imprisonment. In all other cases, confinement lasts from six months to ten years.

The court may impose reduced punishment on anyone who has committed a criminal act when at the time of the commission he had completed the 18th year of age but not the 21st.

If a minor commits a misdemeanour, then he is only subject to two reformative measures : a) a reprimand, and b) assignment of the minor under the responsible care of his parents or guardians.

If a minor who has completed the 13th year of age commits a criminal act and is thought to trial after the completion of 18th year of age, the court may order that the minor be subject to a reduced sentence, rather than be confined in a special institution. In such a case, minors must be kept in separate quarters from adult criminals.

Reformative and Therapeutic measures

As stated above, minors are subject only to reformative or therapeutic measures. Minors between the ages of 13 and 18 who engage in criminal acts are tried by special courts. The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that those are either : a) a single-member Court for Minors, b) a 3-member Court or c) the Court of Appeals. Appeals from the single-member court for minors are heard before the Court of Appeals and not before the 3-member Court.

The 2003 amendments of the juvenile system specify 12 possible reformative measures, listed in order of severity. These include : 1) reprimand, 2) placing the child under the responsible care of his parents or guardians, 3)assignment of the care of the child to foster parents, 4) placing the child in the care of ‘’societies for the protection of children or institutions designated for the care of children’’, 5) communication between victim and underage perpetrator, so that the latter will have the opportunity to express apologies and remorse, 6) compensation of the victim, 7)community service performed by the minors, 8) attending social and psychological programs in special institutions, 9) attending vocational schools or enrolling in training and several other measures. In exceptional cases, the court may impose two or three measures concurrently.

The therapeutic measures are designed to assist minors who need special treatment, especially due to mental or physical illness or due to addiction to drugs or alcohol, and who are unable to assist themselves. In such cases, the court, based on an expert’s diagnosis and opinion, may assign the care of such a minor either to his parents, guardians, or a foster family or may order the care of such a minor in protection agencies. These measures are imposed by a single-member court, based on an opinion issued by a team of doctors, psychologists and social workers.

The reformative measures cease by the act of the law itself, when the minor attains majority.In exceptional circumstances, the Court has the right to extend these measures until the minor reaches the 21st year of age. On the other hand, therapeutic measures do not come to an end automatically. Only the team that ordered them in the first place, has the right to order that such measures be terminated.

Greece has established a public prosecutor for minors in the Athens court district. His responsibilities include assignment of custody, provision of cooperation and assistance to offices of public and private agencies designed to prevent and combat juvenile crime, submission of applications for security measures to the courts for minors, and initiations of legal actions to remove parental custody or child supervision.

Deficiencies of the Greek juvenile justice system

• Unsuited resolution in the case where the parents/custodians have “encouraged”, sometimes by using physical or mental abuse, the minor to commit an offence,
• the lack of juvenile probation officers.
• the abusive recourse to pre-trial detention and its extended duration,
• the juvenile detention centres are preparatory schools for criminals.

Are minors (aged less than 18 years ) detained in establishments specially designed for this purpose?

Male juveniles are kept in special institutions together with young adults (18-21 years old) and –exceptionally- with young men up to 25 years old, who remain in special youth institutions for educational reasons. However, the buildings are not designed for young persons (eg. The prison for juveniles and young adults of Avlona was previously a military prison and Volos custodial institution for young inmates was previously an adult prison). At Eleona Thiva prison, female juveniles are kept in the same prison with adult women but in a separate section. Generally, members of the prison staff are not specially trained to deal with young prisoners. Neither is the prison regime fully adapted to their needs.

Do all juvenile prisoners have access to compulsory education?

Primary ( 6 years ) and secondary (3 years ) school attendance is compulsory in all prisons for juveniles. There are two primary and middle (secondary ) education schools in respective juvenile and young adult custodial institutions but it does not mean that all juvenile prisoners actually attend the educational program.

Children’s rights and police

The Greek Law properly protects arrested children from potential violence by police officers. Nevertheless, the Greek state appears to have been aware that police officers tended at time to use “strong arm” tactics while arresting minors. The number of allegations of police brutality against minors is increasing and police officers continue to enjoy impunity.

Another serious concern is the excessive number of illegal proceedings against often unaccompanied alien minors asylum-seekers including arbitrary arrests and detention with adults, illegal deportation orders and slow procedures for family reunification.

Discrimination against non-Greek origin juvenile offenders

In Greece there has been an increase in juvenile delinquency since 1998. Statistical data particularly reveal the high ratio of Albanian nationals and Roma involved in the Greek juvenile justice system but also show that non-Greek nationals and non-ethnic Greek minors are disproportionately represented in the juvenile penal system, giving a clear sign of probable discrimination. There are numerous cases of discrimination against non-Greek origin juvenile offenders where the proceedings are not fully respected. There are also serious concerns by the excessive number of illegal proceedings against often unaccompanied alien minors asylum-seekers including arbitrary arrests and detention, detention with adults, illegal deportation orders and slow procedures for family reunification. Border incidents, particularly against Albanian minors, also happen. Cases of ill treatment, injuries or death of Albanians trying to cross either legally or illegally the Albanian Greek borders have been reported in the past, but most of them have not at all or very inadequately been investigated and the perpetrators have as a result never been punished.

Detention Conditions

The juvenile prison of Avlona

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Although improvements have been made, general detention conditions fall below international human rights standards. Unfortunately, NGO-based information concerning the detention conditions is rather limited, as Greek authorities do not allow NGOs to access such facilities. The annual problem of overcrowding is also highlighted. Indeed, on June 18, 2004, the prison population exceeded 10, 000, while the capacity remained stable at 5, 000 inmates. As for the living conditions within the prisons, they often "offend modern perception concerning individual and social rights. "

It is a life that doesn’t remind in nothing the life that experiences one minor under normal conditions. A life without friends, without family, without love. A life without color. How can a person live in a cell of 10 square meters which –on average- is shared with three more? A cell full of humidity, in the deterioration, with only one color. The grey. A space that does not remind in nothing a children’s room. How can the child hope and dream for future afterwards when the life in institution passes so slow and difficult? The condition of detention there are absurd. The space is not suitable for a person to live in. The minor cannot be covered sentimentally. He/she lives a life that doesn’t want and follows a program that others have fixed for him.

They permanently feel that somebody punishes them for what they are, creating for themselves the same opinion, that the society has : A young criminal, whom no one likes and wants to be around. Even the other minor prisoners dislike each other and conflicts and beatings are becoming a part of their everyday life. The food is pretty much every day the same. The quality and quantity don’t reach in order to cover the alimentary needs of the children. An awful space is used for prison courtyard, a space without green, without some ‘’exit’’ for the detainee.

You look only at walls and barbwire. How is it possible therefore, through this kind of life, for a young offender to go out at 25 years again to the real world and be a right person, without hate inside him, without complaint for the life he lost? The definite result is that prisons give to the outside world the last pieces of children that entered there.

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One day in prison

Children stacked in the same cells, with different nationalities, ages and penalties. They wake up early and for few hours per day they become students... of second chance. Not all of them, but just those who posse certain grammatical knowledge. The fate of the rest is to remain forever illiterate.

They don’t have frequent visitors, because they don’t have no one to wait for. The games don’t exist because they are not allowed! And excursions is an unknown word because they are prohibited from the law.

Children, instead of candies, take drugs. ‘’Drugs were responsible for the change in my behavior for the crimes that I have committed. However, here I continued using them. The most popular drug in juvenile prisons is marijuana. After heroin and cocaine and then pills. There are a lot of ways to obtain drugs. They throw to us even oranges irrigated with various illegal substances. Our account to the dealer will be paid later. ‘’

Underage ‘’criminals’’ do not visit a child – psychologist. The state allows them to visit a psychologist only if they are thinking to commit a crime again. Something that is almost certain, according to researches that show that 80 % of these children will be transferred in some years to adult prisons.

School of second chance

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In the difficult world where young offenders are compelled to live, there comes a small window of hope, with intention to make their imprisonment more easy and educational and transport to them same basic values.

For that reason, there is ‘’the school of second chance‘’, for these children who have the right to be educated like all the other ‘’normal children ‘’, while it is a constitutionally guaranteed right. Of course, the primary education is obligatory for all underage detainees, and for that reason there is a school with one teacher in every prison.

Education in prison is not an easy procedure while there are many factors that complicate this work, or from the side of facilities or due to lack of willingness from the side of juveniles or due to lack of educational resources and staff. Also, the big percentage of detainees, the mental illnesses that some children have and feelings of fear and insecurity for the place where they are in, are some more contributing factors that make education in prisons, a difficult thing.

These children don’t face the educational space as an effort for a better future and conditions of life. They are waiting for their release.In order this work to succeed, the underage detainee must feel safe in this space, to feel that this is a way of escaping from the everyday routine there and that he acquires again a way to dream. He must see education as a bridge of communication between him and society and use it as a way of preparation for his correct rehabilitation in the society after the release.

Through the education it will also be created a better behaviour in the institution and achieve better and smoother relations with his inmates. The more frequent attendance to this school space, the more social interaction and smoother relations with the others will the juvenile have. Also, the young person will acquire a better relationship with himself and his self-esteem will start to grow. He will learn to be more responsible and active, through the sports activities that are included in the educational system.

Recommendations

The coalition of NGOs recommends that:

Children in conflict with the law

1. The government should ensure that special proceedings set up to protect the child when s/he is arrested are properly implemented by police officers, including when dealing with foreign and asylum-seeker minors. To do so, the authorities should particularly train police officers dealing with children by making them aware of children’s rights. It should also facilitate effective and independent monitoring mechanisms in police station.
2. Moreover, in order to end impunity, the government should systematically undertake adequate action against state agents who are suspected to have committed violence towards children in breach of their duties.
3. The government should decriminalise begging when it is carried out by children.

Juvenile justice system

4. The government should appoint prosecutors and judges trained and specialised in child issues in all areas of the country. It should also appoint juvenile probation officers according to the needs.
5. The government should ensure that any person who commits an offence before the age of 18 will be judged as a minor according to specific proceedings even if her/his trial takes place when s/he is older than 18 years old.
6. The authorities should ensure the effective legal assistance for children in conflict with the law from the arrest.
7. The authorities should guarantee that minors who have committed an offence when encouraged by their parents or custodians are not then taken back to them without investigation into the situation of the child offender’s family.

Deprivation of liberty

8. The Greek authorities should ensure that child deprivation of liberty, including pre-trial and pending-trial detention, is used only as a measure of last resort and for reasonable grounds and according to the best interest of the child.
9. The government should ensure education of the minors in detention by trained and specialised teachers and social workers as well as psychological follow-up.

Corporal punishment in state institutions

10. The Greek state should globally prohibit corporal punishment in all schools and all institutions welcoming children and provide effective implementation of the legal prohibition.
11. The government should provide adequate investigations into the events happened in the “Agia Varvara” children’s institution. This case concerns the disappearance of hundreds of street children that had been accommodated in the “Agia Varvara” institution between November 1998 and October 2001.Despite the gravity of these allegations, the competent authorities, except the Greek Ombudsman, did not undertake any investigation into the circumstances of this event. In its report, the Ombudsman implicitly noted that this case raised concerns about the Greece’s conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Discrimination

12. The government should end discrimination against juvenile offenders of non-Greek origin.

These information were used in my essay and helped me understand a lot how the system works and I put the information in the same row that it was in the essay so that it makes sense. Some very specific information may seem a little bit boring to you, but i put them because they are specifically about Greece and greek juvenile prisons.

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