Monday, November 30, 2015

Invest in the Lives of Imprisoned Juveniles by Investing in Me

As I've been sharing on this blog, Zambia lacks a well-functioning juvenile justice system. Juveniles cannot afford lawyers or access legal aid. In court, they are undefended, which leads to absurd charges (trafficked children charged as traffickers) and one-sided trials (12 year olds cross-examining police). Juveniles committing petty crimes (stealing from a clothesline) end up in prison for years waiting for court dates (teens waiting since 2012 for a judge to sign their sentencing order). During these long detentions, juveniles are held in adult prisons in inhumane conditions leaving them vulnerable to physical and sexual violence with little or no access to healthcare, education, or other social services.


For the past year I have been joined by community volunteers to provide encouragement, activities, and basics such as food and clothing to imprisoned juveniles (ages 8-19) in Zambia's capital city Lusaka and other prisons around the country. While we have made a positive impact in the lives of these boys, as an attorney in both the USA and Zambia, I knew I could do more than just try to improve their imprisonment - I could help end it.

In August 2015, I and a few other local attorneys began looking at some of the boys' cases. We did what we could during our lunch hours, after work, and on the weekends, but it quickly became clear what that what most of these cases needed was lots and lots of time to unravel years of court delays.
In order to work for the freedom of these boys (and the few girls in system), I made the leap of faith to quit my corporate job here in Zambia in October 2015 to dedicate myself full time to juvenile legal cases and welfare. In these few months of having just one person 100% available, we have seen key partnerships built and 30+ boys are closer to their freedom.

I could have waited to start this until I had a big grant from a foreign government or had conducted a USA fundraising tour - in fact I hope both are in my near future. But seeing the tragedies of these young lives unfolding day after day, month after month, year after year, I knew in my heart I needed to start right away instead of first waiting to build my own security.

I am looking for people who also believe these young lives are worth saving and are willing to invest in my work for their freedom. I have been applying for grants and will be traveling to do fundraising as soon as I have made sufficient headway. But for now I need help to allow me to get through this start up phase (until mid-2016).  For me to be able to remain in Zambia during this crucial time I need to raise $20,000. An additional $10,000 is needed for a suitable vehicle to travel to remote prisons across Zambia, where we estimate up to 500 juveniles may be facing prolonged detention.

I made my decision to be "all in," trusting the Lord to use people all around the world to support this work and am looking forward to seeing a miracle first hand.  Do you want to be a part of our efforts to rescue these boys that everyone else has forgotten about?

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:35,36,40

To invest in my life and work in Zambia, please consider supporting my CrowdRise Fundraiser [https://www.crowdrise.com/legalservicesforimpr1/fundraiser/saralarios] or contact me to contribute directly (avoiding crowd-funding admin fees).

If you have any additional questions about my work in Zambia, I would love to arrange a time to speak to you personally.

Leia Mais…
Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Guide to Juvenile Justice - Confirmation

In an area of countless needs, there is one juvenile justice issue which has recently captured my nearly undivided attention: Confirmation. 

In Zambia, a "juvenile" for the purposes of criminal liability is a child between the ages of 8 and 19 years of age. While the law allows a juvenile to be found guilty of a criminal offence, keeping a juvenile in custody at any point is to be treated as a last resort.

Most juvenile criminal cases are tried at the Magistrate Court level. Once a juvenile is found guilty of a criminal offence the magistrate (with the help of a report from Social Welfare) gives an order. These orders can range from discharge to counseling to other diversion programs. The most serious order is the one-size-fits-all-crimes "Reformatory Order" which sends the juvenile to a residential facility for a four year period. 
Lusaka Magistrates Court

Because this is supposed to be the order of last resort, the law adds an extra protective step: all such orders must be sent a level higher to the High Court for a judge to confirm the order is appropriate. Only when a judge reviews the court record and social welfare report and agrees with the magistrate's order is the order considered "confirmed" and the juvenile put on the list to be transported to the designated school. 

From the time a juvenile is found guilty until being transported to the relevant school, the juvenile is held in an adult prison. Though some measures are taken to keep the juveniles separated from the adult men, conditions are harsh to put it mildly. No social services are available and juveniles are dependant on sympathetic family members for clothing, toiletries, and supplemental food. If they don't have anyone that cares, they do without. There is much more I could say on this topic, but I will save that for another post. 

The more time I have spent with juveniles in prison, the more I have come to see that the confirmation process, instead of acting as a protection for juveniles, has become a source of great harm. Watching the boys suffer through this painfully long process made me realize that weekend visits to the prison for sports and lessons were not enough- we needed to add legal action. When weeks stretch into months into a year, as a lawyer you know something is very wrong. And you know you have the ability to do something about it.

Court in a neighboring district
Though it seems a simple process, we have discovered dozens of ways things can go wrong between the magistrate handing down an order and its confirmation by a high court judge. I've spent the past two weeks tracing files for half a dozen boys in Lusaka who have gotten lost in the system. Some of these boys have been waiting for confirmation for more than a year. It's taken many registry visits looking in lots of dusty cupboards and a few road trips to neighboring districts, but we have finally found all but one file. The missing file has been traced to one final court so it's only a matter of time before it is discovered. As I tracked each file, I knew full well it was so much more than a file. It represented a young life hanging in the balance; it was the source of that desperate look I've seen in too many boys' eyes. 

Courtroom at the High Court
On Monday I attended a confirmation session for another nine boys who finally got their day in court. For a few boys the picture had changed in the months or years of waiting. My colleague Kelly and I donned our robes and submitted to the Judge that there were other options available to rehabilitate these juveniles, which the judge has agreed to take into consideration. It is the dear hope of my fellow volunteer lawyers and I that by the end of the year each boy in the Lusaka district waiting for confirmation will have gotten his day in court.

It doesn't stop there. This Saturday I went with some of our volunteers to visit juveniles being held in a prison in a neighboring province. At least boys there are waiting for confirmation and with dismay I saw them raising their hands to indicate how long they had been waiting. It ranged from this year going as far back as 2012. I have every reason to believe the problem of delayed confirmations is being lived out by scores of boys all around the country and I have to do something about it.

I estimate it could take up to two years to get to each and every prison. It's quite daunting to think about. But as of now I am determined. if not I, who will take up the case of these forgotten boys?
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Leia Mais…
Monday, November 2, 2015

New Adventure

It seems so much longer than one month ago that I woke up to a new adventure.

I’ve spent nearly seven years in Zambia, most of those years with an unexpected quiet pulling on my heart to get involved in prisons in Zambia. The how and when of this involvement had been elusive time and time again. Since my first visit to the juvenile cells in Kamwala Remand Prison for a legal briefing in March 2014 I could not shake the feeling that I had been tasked to do something about that look of hopelessness in the eyes of those teenagers. Then, months later, during my next visit to the juveniles in Kamwala Remand to make a simple blanket donation with friends, the 59 boys in custody gave us a challenge: Don’t just walk away and forget now that one good deed had been done. It was in that moment that the Undikumbukire Project was born.

In the local language Chinyanga, “Undikumbukire” means “Remember Me”. We chose this name for our project inspired by the boys’ plea to be remembered as well as the plea of Joseph in Genesis 40:14 when he pleads with his fellow inmates upon their release to remember him. As the word “Undikumbukire” is quite a mouthful for locals and expatriates alike, we often shorten it to “UP”.

In the year that followed that June visit, we kept true to the boys’ request and came for visits every three weeks, then every two weeks, until now volunteers visit every week. Our visits have been filled everything from sports to first aid to cooking to origami. More and more people were willing to give of their time and resources to give these boys a few hours relief from their grim daily existence.

A growing number of our weekend volunteers were lawyers. Though we kept ourselves busy chatting to the boys about football, bringing snacks, coaching them in volleyball, etc. we could not ignore the elephant in the room. We also had the skills that could help many of them be free of these cramped and miserable conditions. But how do you intervene in a overburdened and failing judicial system without the knowledge of the specific problems and procedures and without the relationships with the key authorities in the realm of juvenile law?

Momentum to expand the project from supportive visits to include legal interventions was building. Looking back I am amazed at the amount the few of us accomplished  through early morning emails, rushed meetings with officials during our lunch breaks, and late evening group chats as we reviewed case documents. But there simply was not enough time available in the day to build the foundations required for such an important and detailed project.

And that is how my new adventure began. I made the decision to leave my day job of managing a corporate legal services company. I would then be able to devote my time to the investigations, networking, and groundwork our legal project would need to begin making an impact on the legal cases of the young men we have come to know and care about.

So on 1 October 2015 I woke up knowing that I finally had the freedom to pour my time and energy into helping these juveniles who had a strange grip on my heart. The past month has been a whirlwind of court observations, document requests, letters of introduction, guardian tracking, networking, and glowy stars. The creative mind I inherited never stops generating ideas and it takes all the time I have and more to put them into action. Though its only been one month, my earlier frustration has quickly given way to a determination that the many opportunities opening up will be seized on behalf of these juveniles.

I believe I and others can make an impact that will change the system and the lives of these boys forever. It’s monumental task to be sure, and one that will not be accomplished by our efforts alone. But with each joyful spike of a volleyball in the cramped cells and each relieved smile as a boy recognizes our presence at his trial, there is a joy that carries me forward on my new adventure.

Leia Mais…