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Administrative
Juvenile Training Centre in Maseru keeps boys separated from girls. When children
leave JTC they do not have a criminal record.
Progress
Detention periods for children are capped at 3 years, no matter what their crime.
Difficulties
Girls have no detention centre and are instead kept with adult women. As previously
mentioned, the Probations Unit is severely understaffed and under-skilled, rendering
them largely ineffective in their role in juvenile justice and alternatives to detention. This
makes Judges reluctant to sentence children to alternative forms of justice given that
the strict supervision supposed to be imposed by Probation Officers will not be fulfilled.
There are further no approved schools or probation hostels as envisaged under the
CPW Act. Children also rarely receive legal representation given that they cannot afford
this themselves. It is only in a limited number of cases where a child is charged with a
serious crime that they will be granted a Legal Aid lawyer to represent them.
9.5
Reformation, family reintegration and social rehabilitation (Article
17(3)
Legislative
Section 178 of the CPW Act provides for reformation schools and probation hostels that
do not physically exist. It says further at sections 182, 183 and 186 that no child under
the age of 13 years will be sent there.
Restorative justice measures give those sentencing children the option to return a child
to their family under an order where they must attend school. They can also impose
similar orders where they report to Probation Officers under section 127.
Administrative
There are Probation and Rehabilitation Units established within the MOJ. The latter of
these Units is tasked to equip offenders with life skills for a successful reintegration into
their home communities.
JTC offers counseling, rehabilitation and also vocational training to allow children to
integrate back into their communities more successfully upon their release.