(ANS, 8.9.2021)

More than 1.2 million juveniles worldwide are deprived of their freedom in prisons, police stations and detention centres. Most of them are there for transgressions like sleeping on the street. They do not receive legal aid, often no one knows that they are there, and even worse, they share cells with adults accused of violent crimes or sexual assaults. They are regarded as criminals when they need social support and assistance. Hundreds of children live in prisons surrounded by adults. The presumption of guilt condemns them to hell, where their needs and they themselves are invisible. Many of them die without hope or stop eating to stop suffering.