HRW'S Summary of the publication

Too many children are being held prisoner in Colorado, and as a result they live in crowded conditions that are sometimes unsafe and frequently devoid of activities that would prepare them to be useful citizens when they are released. One institution is so bad it is operating under a court order. Another, a private institution with children from several states, so appalled officials from Idaho that it withdrew its inmates. These are among the highlights of our examination of juvenile detention in Colorado, a state whose snowcapped mountains and crisp air offers an image that is too often belied by its institutions. Human Rights Watch visited institutions, interviewed children, staff members, judges and others, and reviewed the increasingly punitive legislation governing the courts' treatment of people in "the system" under the age of eighteen. Like many states, it is moving away from programs and toward ever-increasing punishment. It is turning its back on children in its care by sending them to private facilities both in and out of state. It is flooding its institutions with young people without taking into account the fact that the vast majority will return to society. Conditions in Colorado institutions often violate U.S. constitutional standards as well as those found in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty. In this report, we make a series of recommendations regarding the human rights aspects of imprisonment in children's facilities in Colorado.

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Last updated 30/03/2001 04:07:08