Children In Prison

Childhoods lost in Philippine jails

By JOHN O'CALLAGHAN
Reuters

(Names have been changed to protect identities of minors)

CALOOCAN CITY - At age 14, Christian was taken to a city jail in the Philippines on charges of selling and using a powerful methamphetamine known as "shabu".

Nearly three years later, he is still in a cell, smaller than a boxing ring, with 28 other youths awaiting a verdict in court.

But Christian and his young cell-mates are lucky. Caloocan City Jail, on the northern outskirts of Manila, is one of very few in the Philippines where minors are separated from adults.

Largely because the government cannot afford other options, most of the thousands of juveniles detained each year must fend for themselves in overcrowded jails among grown men charged with murder, rape and other violent crimes.

For many, their families do not have the money that can help speed up a notoriously slow and overloaded justice system.

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