Sara from A to Z - ZamNews!

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?

Add caption