Applying the Law

Recent statistics from the Ministry of Social Affairs indicate that there are 792 minors in prisons across the country and 510 of the number are found in the Centre Region alone.

The figure may not appear alarming for a country of over 20 million inhabitants with youth making more than half of the population.

In addition, the presence of minors in confinement ought not to be a call for concern if they are properly judged and condemned on the bases of their crimes.

Unfortunately, provisions of the 27 July 2005 Criminal Procedure Code in its articles 700 to 745 that stipulates the legal conditions for judging minors do not seem to have been applied to the minors who today remain incarcerated.

The cry from the Ministry of Social Affairs points to cases of abuse of power, delays in passing judgement or miscarriage of justice where kids are deprived of their freedom by influential neighbours or well-connected individuals who wield such powers to ensure that those who wrong them are taken to jail without proper judgement and kept to wallow for months and even years for petty crimes.

Admittedly, the armed bandit who breaks into homes and keeps hardworking people sleepless at night may have started by stealing an egg. However, combining kids under the same roof with hardened criminals can only succeed in radicalising such youths and creating more problems for society should such youth survive the punishment and get out one day.

Yet, inmates ought to be made to view detention places as reformation centres where they are reconverted to be useful citizens capable of leading better lives and contributing to the wellbeing of their communities.

With recent acknowledgement by officials of the Ministry of Justice that prisons are overcrowded in the country, the numbers having grown over four times above the available infrastructure, it is unfortunate that minors should be unduly bundled into such over-populated prison cells.

There is nothing wrong in copying good examples by multiplying structures like the Boaster Institute in Buea, South West Region. Rather than abandon the structure to fate, it ought to be rehabilitated, empowered and more such centres created across the country to cater for wayward youths.

Society has the obligation to protect its youth from destruction by those who pull the strings to their advantage. The case of the young man detained at the Kondengui Central Prison for stealing a photo camera and abandoned for months without trial is just one out of many who suffer from societal injustice.

Such experiences must not be allowed to last in a country where youths are hard-pressed for jobs and survival.

If they must go to jail, the idea of sending them to detention centres meant for adults, is just like using one wrong to correct another wrong. Yet, it is a common knowledge that two wrongs cannot make a right! Even worse, some of the detention cases are said to be the results of parents fed up with their naughty children who decide to abandon the kids as inmates.

Enhancing public vigilance even against such parents can be a sure means to free society from future acts of criminality that could result from adult delinquents.