This is no jailbreak but in essence a similar act by juveniles confined to a correction centre. As many as eight boys of the now infamous JashoreShishuUnnayan Kendra ran out first by breaking the window of a toilet and then using a ladder to scale the high boundary wall on Sunday night. This follows the escape of seven girls from a safe home in Faridpur town in the small hour of Saturday, only a day earlier. These girls also broke window grills before scaling the boundary walls. Reports have it that three of the eight boys could be brought back and just one of the safe home escapees was arrested the next morning. Manhunts are on for capturing the young fugitives in both the cases. The danger is that such escapees may fall in traps of the various criminal gangs now active in the country if they are not traced out immediately.
Now it is important to bring under serious review the condition prevailing in the country's juvenile correction centres and safe homes. Why do the inmates want to run out of those facilities, particularly when most of the girls and women sheltered in the safe home in Faridpur were vagrants? The girls and women have no family and no one near and dear to return to. As for the child care home in Jashore, the tale is terribly sad and shocking. On Auguest 13 last, severe physical torture by employees and members of the management staff left three boys dead and 15 other wounded. At that time three fled the centre and another tried to run away from the hospital. Two other teenagers reportedly tried to commit suicide inside the correction centre. What a traumatic experience the juveniles there went through! There is nothing surprising if the boys and girls try to escape from such a hostile environment.
Clearly, what has been passed as a correction centre falls far short of any such ideal facility. The correction centres warrant immediate corrective measures if those have to prove their utility for juvenile offenders. In this country caring facilities for psychological problem deal with patients in so brutal a manner that instead of getting cured their lives come to a premature end. Only recently did a police officer die in such a shocking manner. So there is nothing to be surprised if the management unleash limitless atrocities on inmates of correction centres and safe homes.
Such primitive concepts are in total contrast to the advanced attitudinal shifts in treatment of criminals and offenders. Norway's highly progressive correctional methods have shown that reforming even the hardened criminals is challenging but not impossible. Involved here are young ones who do not pose an outsize threat to society. In fact, society's unequal and hostile treatment towards them or the influence of notorious gangs on them may have been responsible for turning them into petty offenders or serious criminals. The complaint made to the effect that the eight juveniles are most notorious shows the attitude of the staff members of the centre. So, the correction centres should be developed as modern facilities where young minds are truly nursed and nurtured.
