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Anshu Sharma,
Delhi Metropolitan Education affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
Overview
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act is a legal framework in India for taking care and proper legal procedures for children who are in conflict with the law and those who require protection until the age of 18 years. It was launched in the year 2000 and since then has undergone some changes with the latest in 2015. It deals with the offenders as well as those who require assistance in an equal manner.
According to the law, it seeks to ensure that children’s rights are not infringed, it seeks to ensure that children get back to the right society, to prevent occurrences of problems in the society , in every plan, children come first, and it embraces the principles of rehabilitation, not retribution.
Some provisions of the law are for rehabilitation homes and special homes for children, education, and training for children who have been in trouble reintegrating back into society, options for non-stipend orders like probation or community service, support and education for children after leaving the homes, provisions to ensure that every child’s plan is as per his or her needs and that checks are made periodically to ensure that the interventions being provided to children.
Juvenile Justice Board
Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) is just a single institution in the juvenile justice set up of a nation like India, it is an essential and dominant one. It arises under Acts such as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) and a magistrate having the rank of a judicial officer who is assisted by two social workers, one of which must be a woman, the state government appoints. JJB manages cases of children who are accused of the crime by concentrating on their welfare and rehabilitation. It works by a child community that is the combination of an informal setup and being child-friendly. Thus, the child's understanding of the events is promoted and his participation is ensured. Legal Services are provided on the behalf of a child & all necessary care is taken for promoting the child’s rights. Also, the JJB performs social investigations to collect useful data on the circumstances and background of the child. Its main aim is to obtain the restorative process and integration into the society instead of a punishment. It implements a number of policies on vocational training, education, and counseling so that the child can develop physically, psychologically, intellectually, and morally. The JJB supervises the case and reviews fresh materials each time and makes orders as needed.
Schemes for rehabilitation of juveniles
The services for rehabilitation of juveniles have a role of offering help, showing the correct path and avail required opportunities for the young offenders and make them fit to be reintegrated or adopted in the society. The following are the few rehabilitation schemes for juveniles:
Education and Vocational Training Programs: Many rehabilitation programs provide vocational training as well as education to juveniles to ensure they get employment in the society. They may include academics, vocational training or management of family life.
Counselling and Mental Health Services: More often than not, the troubles and the issues of youth offenders are but manifestations of their mental illness or the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, the root causes of their criminal behaviour. In this, there is a number of activities that a person engages in rehabilitation programs in order to find reforms in counselling services, therapy, and psychiatric services to handle the emotional state.
Substance Abuse Treatment: Rehabilitation strategies contain treatment facilities that maintain substance abuse like counselling, detoxification, and rehabilitation for offering the addicts a chance to get the necessary treatment in order not to relapse.
Behavioral Intervention Programs: The behavior intervention programmes primary purpose is to modify the negative behavior and teach the juveniles about handling of anger, conflicts and decision making. Some of the interventions could be in the form of developing problem solving skills, enforcing anger control and management and social skills development.
Restorative Justice Initiatives: These programmes aim at balancing whatever is inflicted on the victim and the society when the offender is a juvenile. The main types of such interventions are mediation, victim offender dialogue, as well as community service that offenders complete in order to understand the consequences of their actions and restore the violated rights.
Aftercare and Follow-Up Support: It is necessary to say that any rehabilitation requires follow-up and further evaluations for it to be successful. Parole for juvenile offenders is also a component of the aftercare programs the services include; access to the community resource centres, mentor and subsequent follow up counselling to discourage them from engaging in more criminal activities and to facilitate their rehabilitation.
Education and Employment Assistance: After being detained, juveniles can get help in picking jobs and education programs to undertake after serving their time. It might lead among other things to providing them with an education, training for employment, employment placement and vocational and rehabilitation in order to make them able to build and promote successful livelihood.
Steps taken by the judicial proceedings towards the rehabilitation
The rehabilitation of juveniles within the judicial system has its varied nature with the objective of addressing the basic motives behind juvenile delinquency and providing path for positive transformation. Community cooperation among the Court, probation officers, social workers, mental health specialists, educators, and community organizations must be done in order to rehabilitate juveniles within the judicial system. The aim is to ensure that each juvenile is identified, and support and resources are provided so that they can achieve good outcomes with low recidivism rates. The following are few steps taken by the judicial proceedings towards the rehabilitation:
Initial Contact with Law Enforcement: The initial phase of a delinquent act usually begins with the contact with a law enforcement officer. This can be anything from arrest, to a citation, and to a referral to the juvenile probation services, depending on the gravity of the offense.
Intake and Screening: Following this contact with the law enforcement, the juvenile are then referred to intake officers or juvenile probation officer. This period includes an investigation where the officer gathers data on the youth's background, family, school performance, and any previous experience of the juvenile justice system.
Diversion Programs: For example, sometimes, only for less serious crimes or first-time offenders, juveniles may be eligible for diversion programs instead of formal court proceedings. These initiatives are intended to shift the youngsters away from the standard system of justice and into interventions based in communities like counselling, community service and educational programs.
Adjudication Hearing: At this stage, the juvenile’s case goes through an adjudication hearing, which has some similarities with a trial in adult court but is less formal. At the hearing, the evidence is presented and the judge makes a decision on whether the juvenile is responsible for the delinquency behaviour.
Disposition or Sentencing: A hearing on adjudication comes second, where if the juvenile is found to be responsible the judge in turn deals with the disposition section which determines an appropriate sentence or disposition. One of the main purposes for sentencing a juvenile is to punish him instead of rehabilitating him.
Individualized Treatment Plans: The judge, depending on the assessment of the juvenile's needs and risk factors, constitutes the need for an individualized treatment plan. These efforts are accomplished using a range of activities, such as counselling, substance use treatment, educational programs, vocational education, and family therapy.
Probation Supervision: In the majority of cases, young people sentenced to probation are under the probation officer’s authority. The probation officer follows the juvenile's commitment to the court orders, shelters him/her with needed support and guidance, and connects him or her to relevant services and resources.
Rehabilitative Services and Programs: Adolescents can be judged to take part in rehabilitative programs and services which directly respond to their particular issue, such as anger management, life skills development, substance abuse treatment and counselling. They are developed to enhance the positive behaviour change as well as decrease the possibilities of delinquency in the future.
Community-Based Alternatives to Incarceration: If there is enough time, the courts may employ community-based alternative services which might entail home arrest, electronic monitoring, or placement into a group/residential treatment home. Such alternatives are those that make it possible for the juveniles to contribute to their families and communities while still being subordinated to the official supervision and services.
Reintegration and Aftercare: As the juvenile is near to completing his or her court-ordered treatment or supervision, efforts are made to aid in their reintegration to the society. Among these programs, mentoring, educational and vocational assistance and follow up methods are used to make sure that the kids are not getting back into the track of delinquent behaviour.
Importance of rehabilitation for Juvenile offenders
Re-education of juvenile offenders is unavoidable, as it aims at enhancing the probability of the youths to re-enter society without engaging in further offenses. Juvenile offenders are treated through a positive youth development approach in order to reduce recidivism, enhance the nation’s capacity to secure its people, safeguard rights and responsibilities of juvenile offenders in order to advocate for justice. Importance of rehabilitation for juvenile offenders are mentioned below:
Developmental Stage: Adolescence is one of the most crucial periods in a person’s life, which is characterized by dynamic changes in the physical, mental, and emotional realms. These young people who belong to the gang category and have offended, undergoes the development of their personality and values. The rehabilitation program has the potential of helping to decrease or eliminate the root causes like trauma, substance use, and family issues while providing for the patients’ development.
Reducing Recidivism: The rehabilitation plans to alter the methods of influential crime through identifying the various factors that why the youth is committing crimes and resolving those issues through the roots to reduce recidivism rates.
Protecting Public Safety: The goal of rehabilitation programs is to prevent the causes of delinquency, which in return reduces the chances of the juveniles getting more involved in criminal activities in future.
Restorative Justice: Restorative justice principles in the application of rehabilitation aims at correcting the harm done as results of crime and foster accountability, compassion, and restoration. Measures such as victim offender mediation, community service or writing apology to all parties for the wrongs done is a way for delinquent youth to realize and appreciate what they did wrong, and help to correct the wrong.
Individualized Approach: The main feature at the rehabilitation is separation of juvenile offenders from another according to their needs, strengths and weaknesses. By correcting treatment plans and introducing and providing proper measures considering the individual features, the centres focus on individual basis.
Education and Skill Development: Most of the youth offenders are school dropouts, or have dropped out due to involvement in criminal activities or for other reasons. Teaching subjects and vocational education make up the common rehabilitation courses because they help in enhancing the academic performance of the youth. All this helps in preparing the youth for jobs and also increase employment opportunities, which in essence, decrease the chances of the youth getting involved in criminal activities.
Promoting Pro-Social Behaviour: Main objectives of rehabilitation services are to change the antisocial attitudes and behaviours for the prosocial ones as understanding, personal and social respect, and learning how to resolve conflicts. Due to the relationships that they can learn to develop with their peers, some of the family members, and other role models in the society, youth offenders can develop a positive acceptance, are able to belong and create self-respect that can help them in steering away from negative influences that may result in taking it as an example of such traits.
Role of Rehabilitation centres in the juvenile justice board
Rehabilitation centres have a significant position among other facilities of the juvenile justice system, as they are designed with specialised care services and management, and competent assistance to offenders of this socially vulnerable category. Simply, it means that the work of the juvenile justice system depends on the rehabilitation centres, which offer rehabilitation and self-sufficiency opportunities for youngsters that aim at preventing their re-offending the crime. The following are the role of rehabilitation centres in JJB:
Rehabilitation and Treatment: Many rehabilitation centres offer structured environments to the trainees and offer education, counselling, and therapeutic sessions that are specifically designed to provide for the trainee’s needs. They try to address the root cause which includes substance abuse, mental disorder, trauma, or behavioural disorders that make these young offenders commit the crime.
Skill Development: Employment services are applied on the rehabilitation of the basic life skills of the youths such as; problem solving, communication, anger management and conflict solving skills to ensure that the youths are prepared with essential skills so as to reintegrate into society. Such educational programmes afford the same education as the other students and ensure that the young offenders do not lag in their academic work due to their stay in prison.
Behavioural Modification: The rehabilitation centres in the society make use of the evidence based intervention as well as the behaviour modification techniques to set up an environment which foster a change in the offenders attitude as well as beliefs. Among the measures proposed, there are such kinds of treatment as cognitive-behavioural like, group treatments, familial treatments, and several programs of peer support to avoid re- offending.
Reintegration and Re-entry Planning: Juvenile justice organizations, social services departments and other community players engage rehabilitation centers in formulating community re-entry and reintegration strategies for youthful offenders who are to be discharged back to the society. Such tasks include having the juveniles ready for life after the facility, connecting them with resources, assisting them to find education, employment, homes and health care.
Individualized Case Management: Rehabilitation centers provide counselors, social workers, psychologists, probation officers with necessary education qualification and experience to supervise and manage individual plans and cases of juvenile offenders. This includes determination of the services that are needed and the evaluation of risk that each juvenile poses to themselves, formulation of treatment plans, evaluation, and proper transfer of the youths to support services.
Prevention and Early Intervention: Juvenile probation helps youth at risk avoid delinquency and minimize involvement in recidivism and directs juveniles to intervention programs and diversion instead of being arrested as a criminal. The main aim of such programs is to address the actual needs and provide a chance to teenagers to not repeat those crimes again.
Legal Rights and protections for juveniles in rehabilitation centres under JJ act
The legal provisions for juveniles in rehabilitation centres under JJ Act are supposed to ensure the legal rights and protection of the juveniles who go astray and land in rehab centres. Through the protection of these legal rights and legal remedies, rehabilitation centres can help in the advancement of juveniles’ well-being when in conflict with the law, the rehabilitation of these juveniles as individuals and their reintegration into the society. These legal rights are mentioned below:
Right to Legal Representation- The juvenile has the right to be represented by an attorney at every stage of the procedures such as arrest, trial, and rehabilitation. They may be allowed to have a legal guardian or an advocate to speak for them.
Confidentiality- The JJ Act has the principle that the proceedings against a juvenile shall be confidential in order to protect the identity of the child. The clients, their name, address, and history, are discreet because one of the worst things that can happen to a hopeless case is stigmatization or discrimination.
Presumption of Innocence- As it will be observed from the research, both the adult and juvenile are held innocent until proven otherwise. Juvenile rehabilitation centres should then be made to offer a favorable environment that supports the juvenile’s reintegration into society and not punishment.
Protection from Harm- Correctional facilities for juvenile offenders need to guarantee the protection of that individual’s welfare. Also, children should be safe from physical, emotional or psychological abuse, violence, and exploitation.
Access to Education and Rehabilitation Programs- Juveniles in rehabilitation centres have the right to education as well as having access to rehabilitation programs that seek to reform them as well as having rights to their physical, mental and social welfare.
Family Contact and Support- The law acknowledges the roles of family contact and support in the rehabilitation of the juveniles referred to in the JJ Act. Relatives and friends of the juveniles can visit and communicate with the juveniles in the rehabilitation centres unless they are a negative influence on the juveniles.
Periodic Review of Placement- The juveniles that are put in the rehabilitation centres are also supposed to be given a periodic review by either the JJB or the CWC. This review makes it possible to determine that the plan of rehabilitation will be efficient and satisfactory for the juvenile.
Rehabilitation and Reintegration into Society- The reintegration of individuals who were deprived of liberty in childhood to society, as valuable and worthy members of society is essential. There is a need to involve skill development, vocational training and counseling and or other related forms of intervention in order to enhance successful reintegration of the beneficiaries.
Protection of Rights in Custody- The vulnerable juveniles in rehabilitation centres do not lose any of their constitutional rights enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, hence, the rights of Juveniles include the right to Privacy, right to dignity, and the right not to be discriminated against. Any infringement of any one or more of them can be corrected as and when the violation is observed.
Complaint Mechanism- Juveniles have a right to complain or launch a grievance on the treatment or conditions that they receive in rehabilitation centres. There could be efficiency in complaint handling and there can also be clear complaints procedure and guidelines.
Observation Home provision
Cadet care centres, or observation home, refers to institutions for juveniles that are involved in criminal activities or those in vulnerable situations. These homes offer intermediate homes to juveniles waiting for cases to be heard, or where otherwise delayed, or awaiting adoption and other permanent home solutions. Although the formal structure of these systems differs from one jurisdiction to the other, there are usually some common features that any complicated system of rules adheres to at some level.
Its key goal is to provide juveniles with temporary accommodation with necessary care and protection, to achieve their successful rehabilitation. These homes are run under juvenile justice or child welfare laws and use norms of eligibility criteria of the juveniles, their rights, requirements of staff, and the procedure of monitoring and evaluation.
Juveniles are admitted to these homes for various reasons ranging from being implicated in a crime, rescued from abusive situations by the police or any other lawful authorities, or being considered as vulnerable children who require the company of an observation home through the authority of child welfare. The criteria for admission of juveniles might include their age, gender, psychological or mental status and the nature of the crime that is attributed to him or the kind of threat that the juvenile is believed to be in danger.
Special facilities required to be provided in the observation homes are places to reside with facilities of sleeping and other garments and bed cloths, foods to eat and facilities for bathing and all these should be safe and secure as well as private. They also provide evaluative, educational, and vocational services which in some ways are intellectually, socially and emotionally beneficial to the juvenile, while they equally provide counselling, life skills and recreational services in order to tackle juvenile delinquency.
Healthcare is another relevant feature, where juveniles get medical check-ups, immunizations, general and specialized treatment and overseer indicators of abuse or substance dependence or developmental disorders. Also family and community participation is allowed for the juveniles to access their families and supportive members of the community, family counselling, and mediation services to enhance juvenile’s reintegration into society upon release.
Therefore, observation homes have a significant purpose in the juvenile justice and child protection systems as they provide for troubled juvenile’s care and transformation. Their achievements require cooperation with government and non-governmental organizations, communities, and other institutions to protect offenders rights and assist them in becoming useful citizens again.
Conclusion
Rehabilitation centres as provided under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act hold a central place in the change of young people who have indulged in unlawful activities or those who require protection. These centres are meant for the care, correction, and restoration of these young offenders in order to transform their lives and be useful members of society. There is safeguarding and protecting of juvenile’s rights as stated in the JJ Act in its key provisions, where the focus is on rehabilitation rather than retribution and also support through education, vocational training, counselling and health care services. Juvenile Justice Boards, special homes and observation homes provide services that are formulated for each juvenile to attend to individual needs with an intention of reforming their behaviour or prevent them doing such acts which can lead the juvenile repeating the same mistake again.
References
https://thelawdictionary.org/article/difference-between-juvenile-and-adult-justice-systems/
https://www.thelawgurukul.com/post/juvenile-delinquency-causes-and-prevention
https://lawctopus.com/clatalogue/clat-pg/juvenile-justice-system-in-india-evolution-and-defects/
https://lawnotes.co/juvenile-justice-system-and-rehabilitation-in-india/
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