Correctional Facilities for Girls and Boys under the Age of 18
By Shabnam Mirsaeedi Farahani
According to Islamic laws once a girl is nine years old it is considered to be an adult. Therefore, prior to the establishment of correctional facilities, girls were sent to adult prisons when arrested and sentenced. In 1999, after pressure from Shirin Ebadi, Noushin Ahmad Khorassani and other social activists, the government established a separate facility for girls who were under the age of 18.
Most of the girls in Tehran's Correctional Facility for Girls have been arrested for sexual relationships with men or for stealing with or without a weapon. The facility serves 30-60 girls at a time whose sentences can range from 20 days to the death penalty.
The Correctional Facility for Boys has been established prior to the Revolution in 1979. The facility in Tehran serves an estimated 200-300 boys at a time who have been arrested for drug addiction, purchase or sale, murder, stealing with the use of a weapon, or fighting.
The Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child has been active through various projects in the Correctional Facility for Girls and Boys in Tehran. The volunteers of the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child have focused mostly on educational and legal areas that can be divided into five different subcategories:
I. Basic Education
Considering that many of the girls and boys in this facility come from poor and disrupted families and often are illiterate, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child provides basic reading and writing classes to these girls and boys.
II. Vocation Training
Most of the children in this facility are poor. Due to their bad financial situation, they have been forced to commit crimes. Therefore, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child has made it one of its main objectives to provide vocation training to these children in order for them to be able to make a living on a legal basis.
III. Life Skills
Considering that a lot of the crimes committed are rooted in psychological deficiencies within the child such as overwhelming anger, hatred or lack of self-control, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child provides the children with relevant classes in which it seeks to teach children about proper values, self-control and self-respect.
IV. Hygiene and Sexual Education
Since a lot of the crimes committed, especially among girls, are related to prostitution or sexual contact with the opposite sex, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child provides the children with a basic overview of hygiene and sexual issues for their own protection and awareness.
V. Continued Education
To be certain that children will not fall behind in their academics while in the correctional facility, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child has volunteers that give lessons to children and prepare them for school exams.
VI. Legal Services
In its most recent efforts to defend the rights of the child, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child seeks lawyers to represent children in court and provide them with legal advice and other legal services.