The use of solitary confinement and isolation for detained children in Latin America is too common. Solitary confinement is overused by poorly trained guards as an “easy solution” to deter a child from misbehaving, however, it has lasting negative impacts on their mental and emotional health.
Juvenile Justice Advocates International (JJAI) works to implement positive systemic changes within Latin America’s juvenile detention centers. We participated in a two-day webinar with Defensa de Niñas y Niños (DNI) – Internacional, DNI Internacional España, Grupo de Sociología de la Infancia y la Adolescencia, and the Global Campus of Human Rights to discuss the overuse of isolation, how to approach youth to inform them of their human rights and what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors between youth, the guards, and detention center administrators.
Through these conversations and joint efforts between similar organizations at a global level, we are working to find solutions to significantly decrease the number of youth sent to and living in solitary confinement.