Children in prisons for lazy magistrates

Many children are languishing in prisons across the country due to the negligence of a section of judicial magistrates who do not care to verify their ages and send them to juvenile correctional facilities, Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Prof Mizanur Rahman said in Rajshahi yesterday.
“I can't understand how a magistrate can send a child to jail citing her/his age as above 18, in order to avoid some additional work of verifying their age,” he told reporters at the entrance of Rajshahi Central Jail after one and a half hours' visit to the prison.
Prof Rahman said he identified some children at Rajshahi Central Jail who would not be over 14 years of age, and the prison doctors too gave the same opinions about their ages.
“No civilised society or state should accept such a practice,” he said.
According to the NHRC chief, some magistrates are mentioning the age of children, who are actually below 18, as above 18 in legal documents and sending them to jail instead of the juvenile detention centres, which are dedicated for them.
He drew the attention of the chief justice and urged him to ask all judicial magistrates to verify the age of children properly before sending them to jail. Prof Rahman himself will send a report to the chief justice regarding this matter, he told journalists.
The rights body chief, however, expressed satisfaction over the environment of the jail, but urged infrastructural expansion to properly accommodate the prisoners.
He also said he saw some children who were born in the jail and were suffering with their mothers. “A civilised and democratic state like ours must not let children live in prisons. The government should think about alternatives immediately.”
The NHRC chairman visited Laxmipur Girls School in Rajshahi city before ending his two-day visit to Rajshahi.