First define children. In medical terms. Is someone legally competant? Are they responsible for themselves? A general age is 14. Can there be a juvinille system i.e. in between jail and a home?

What if an 8 year old murdered someone?

If they choose to do it by themselves then yes. If they are being made to do it then the person making them do it is to blame and the 8 year old should be taken and offered help

An 8 year old is not responsible.

As long as its clear murder they need to be taken somewhere secure

Hello Mark. A child committing a murder case is rare. But may be to thing about it, getting an option to murder someone means he/she has been exposed to very harsh conditions. So the one who exposed that child to such conditions is the one who should go to Jail.

at home they could make you mop and refuse to give you food for are day

Community service – cleaning or slashing any job which they have

Which type of behaviours do they learn? Who do they learn them from?

they should first find out the reason why they do it before taking them to the jail

they can learn bad words and find out about bad crimes

They should not be taken because jail teaches bad behaviours the bset i stalking to children

Maybe just a naughty step?

There prisoners use bad language and they teach children to be rude and also Homosexuality

I agree with u on this point, children learn bad behaviors from prison.

Who is to blame for the bad crimes committed by the children

If Jesus forgave Juda who betrayed him. can you not really forgive the children after they have done wrong thing?

when are child is living on the street if they commit crime it is because of the situation they are in not because they want to do bad thing

If they commit a crime they should be arrested but if they are just idle or homeless they should not. They should work with organisations to get them back home not to jail.

No, because children have their simple punishments but not jail.

No, cause jail is one of the institutions that may spoil the children more.

Parents its your responsibility to advise your children to reduce crimes but not taking them to jail.

Yes Jimmy, i agree with you because jail is not the best alternative for punishing children.

No brother Ali, the Ugandan law does not permit arrest of children below 18yrs, children need to be guided but not arrested and put to jail, however, the time they spend in jail is wasted for their future.

What is the best talking to the child or taking him to jail

I think they should be punished for their actions not jail. they are still learning children.

Totally agree imprisonment as a punishment for homelessness is akin to trying to solve the problem of golf balls by stamping on them

Great point Jimmy.

Hi Anne, your idea of second chance is so fair and loving, but i disagree with you of jail being a reasonable punishment for children cause they don’t know what they do at times and jail can’t be the only institution for rehabilitation more than rehabilitation homes.

it depends on what you define by ”kids”. There is an age where ”kids” legally become ”adults”, responsible for their actions

it depends on a child’s age and what crime has he committed

Its true that children commit crimes but its not good to take them to jail, advise them appropriately and use the right proceedure and iam sure they will stop or avoid committing crimes.

Me as a child i think they should just cane us if we have committed big crimes but not to take us to jail

They should just advise us on the right behavior expected of us than taking us to jail becuase jail is bad because there is lots of abuse and hard labor.

Is caning really the answer Joseph? Does being hit make you behave better?

for me I would rather be cained then being taken to jail

I wouldnt change my behaviour from being hit. I am the one to choose to change.

I think being caned always make children more disobedient or submissive because of fear. neither Jail Nor caning is a solution. I don’t why people think that Discipline means punishment

hi Tarek, that sounds the best idea since many of these children luck guidance and counseling, love, advise, care, support and protection from the parents and this calls for foster families.

Hi Joseph, to me i think caning is not the best way to go, and if you cane the child and he or she continues committing big crimes, what next?

Isnt that facility just a different type of jail? Would they be allowed to move in and out freely?

Child protection refers to systems and structures that prevent and respond to violence, exploitation and abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, child imprisoning, trafficking, child labour and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. Despite the legal framework, the situation for child protection in our area is still desirable. We is lacking a comprehensive and effective child protection system that is functional at all levels. children’s rights continue to be extremely abused through Night beating and Jailing . They continue to leave in conditions characterized by inadequate access to health services, biting poverty in homes, increased pupil dropout rates leading to low completion rates and unacceptably high cases of child abuse and neglect which undermines the four cardinal rights of a child to survival, development, protection and participation.

Cant jails be places of rehabiliation and not just of punishment? Could we vision a nice jail?

I think they should take us to organisations helping street connected children than taking us to jail, we feel loved and cared for because some of these organisations like SALVE international help us so much. They teqch us good ways to behave as children.

To me, jail can not be a place to rehabilitate children because the word jail as soon as some one pronounces it, what comes into my mind, its suffering. this means that children dare not to learn through torture and mistreatment but instead have to be treated well and counselled as well as being guided on what to do.

May God bless you Victoria,i wish we have many people who have ideas like u.

There is nothing in the name of jail that can be good to someone especially children. because it means putting people together under some tight supervision and that would lower the creativity of children.

I agree that children should be taken to rehabilitation homes rather than prison they can get an education

Depends on age. 1-3 grounding is enough. 4-6 grounding and taking away pleasures for a certain time. 7-10 a serious talk, grounding and taking away pleasures.Teenagers are tricky, depends what they have done, but no prison.

Thank you Victoria for that great idea. I think even helping the parents understand how to hep their children will help very much and be more sustainable than any other method

There is helping parents but there is also a man called attitude and mind that has to change in them too before they accept.

You’re right Adams. Attitude change is the Mr driver of this

Children need someone who will love them&support them. Punishment doesn’t solve the problem.

Is a child responsible for doing bad things or is it the parent?

Both are responsible – but jail can also help someone to take their responsibilites seriously and reform their bad characters

children should not go to jail as they make you work too hard and they even kill you

Calm down Kurt aunzo, focus on the topic

Indeed you need to get your eye glasses on kurt aunzo

No children are also like other people it is not good for them they need a lot of care then putting them in jail

Crime is a crime, but there are alternative measures to prison…

Such as which alternatives please?

No child is to be arrested into prisons but instead they need to be guided on how to do things and to behave in a given society. there isnt any kind of discipline instilled in the children but its the responsibility of every parent to properly parent the child so as to come up with some one responsible in future

You are right when u think about looking at the age and the degree or magnitude of the crime

What if they killed your husband? Or raped your daughter? Or made your house be on fire? Would you still give them a second chance if they had bad behaviors like this?

jail teaches them even more bad behaviours.

No children only need to be counseled because putting them in jail causes no change forexample a child may leave jail and do the same they are used to so children need to be just given advice.

Its not good for children to be taken to jail because this distorts the future of that child in that whatever thing that he or she does in his or her life, chances are that the child is taken to prison because it was exposed to him so the child is used to it hence him becoming a criminal

Wow wow wow. You have spoken my mind Helen. I didnt know you’re a social worker. I also think that listening (paying attention to the verbals and non verbals) to children would help especially if we put emphasis on finding out why the behavior and acting to resolve the why other than the child. Adults have a very big role to play here. they should know

Does jail change the children? Are they really helped there? You seem to be stereotyping quite a lot about street kids.

Young children are not supposed to face such harsh conditions as it iritates them as they grow

going to jail does not help improve children’s behaviour. not all street children are thugs

Beatrice, it is not a good idea. Not every child on the street commits crimes, actually the community should change their attitudes towards street children.

Beatrice its not true that putting these children who are on streets into jail can make them grow responsible but the community has to guide them on what to do because two wrongs can not make one right. The children therefore are to be given time to also express their views, ideas and concerns because these are the leaders of tomorrow who should not be maginalised

I agree to you we can change them through teaching good things .. .. and when a child send to jail … Jail can teach them somethings?

Being in an enclosed space behind bars would be terrifying, particularly with the knowledge that ’legitimate’ people have put you there and, ultimately, have a lot more control over the situation and you. Being on the streets in a war zone would be just as frightening because of the threat of imminent death of both you and your family members. No child should be in either of these scenarios.

No children are people who need to stay with their parents

I agree that children should be taken to school so they can learn good behaviours

Debbie, i agree with u, you have a better alternative and solution. Taking them to school should be taken as a priority.

Its true Debbie we need to take children to schools instead of prisons but we need to be the first teachers in our homes for proper parenting in that before this child is taken to school, its atleast some one who understands issues. this is only done if we listened to them or given chance to also express themselves

There is no learning and understanding in jail

Great understanding Debbie. They have a lot of good things they should learn from us adults and not Jail where they learn from peers and no adult is there for them to follow

Doesnt it depend on the crime commited? And what about the family circumstances of the child? For example a child living on the streets might steal to get something to eat which while is wrong is more understandable than a child from home stealing who has enough to eat

Homelessness shoul not be a crime. If a child has a loving support network, food, shelter and is happy, then I doubt they would choose the streets. It should be a crime that governments don’t do more about it

Yes in order to make them reform it is very fine they should be put into jail such that they can reform to better life

Darren, what payments do you think should be given to children who commit crimes?

for same crimes its better to talk about why it was wrong and to apologise

How do they reform when in jail there all sorts of bad behaviours that children adopt from there…

Childien need to be counselled but not be taken to jail

Hey Darren. I think payment is okay. But remember some of these children have no adult to model their life and so they never got chance to be taught what is right and wrong. So what they focus on is just how to survive. I think teaching them how to treat others would be a fair way forward and not taking them to Jail. They know less to be made to pay

Sometimes parents are to blame for all the behaviors of their children so in case they miss out on talking to them they end up failing to handle their children’s situations and behaviours however jail is not the best option for a child punishment