Juveniles Rehabilitation Center

 Written by: Mohammad Anwar Andar

Aslam and Hanifa are Lalo mama’s guests, who are waiting for him in the yard of the castle. Lalo Mama comes, greets them and takes them to the corridor of the castle.

Lalo Mama finds out that Aslam is afraid of something or someone and asks him the reason. Hanifa says that when we were coming to the castle, policemen arrested a criminal boy and we both afraid of it.

Lalo Mama says that children under 18s are called wrongdoers, not criminals and then he opens a window for more information.

Window:

In the widow, the reporter of the castle asks some youngster that if a juvenile commits a crime, what would be his/her punishment?

Sadam, a resident of Kapisa province says: one of my classmates murdered someone, the government arrested him and I don’t know that where they kept him.

The reporter says that whenever juveniles under 18s commit a crime, the government takes him/her to the Juveniles Rehabilitation Center(JRC).

Lalo Mama closes the window.

Hanifa says that she wants more information about JRC. Lalo Mama takes them to Hakim Baba.

Hakim Baba reads from a book:

When juveniles between 13-18 years commit a crime, they would be kept in the JRC. the JRCl is a department of the Ministry of Justice. The main office of juveniles rehabilitation center is located in Kabul city and has branches in most of the provinces of Afghanistan.

The arrested boys/girls would be educated so that they would be safe in JRC from committing more criminal activities.

In the JRC, they learn computer, school subjects, carpet weaving, embroidery, carpentry, arts and much more.

The  JRC has two parts: open part and closed part.in the open parts, those juveniles are kept who have committed a minor crime and if their parents guarantee them, they could go home every night and have to return back in the morning but in the second part, the arrested boys/girls would be kept all the time in the custody.