Neglectful treatment of children in police stations can have terrible consequences. At Kabul’s Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre (JRC) we meet children who have needlessly been detained without trial for months, waiting for accusations to be investigated, only ultimately to be found innocent. Even petty crimes such as pickpocketing leads to incarceration, taking children away from their family and school – often loading them with a stigma that follows them long after they have been released.

Unfortunately, how well children are treated in the justice system is often determined by what finances their family have at their disposal.

Through our Juvenile Justice project we are providing a team of social workers to be present at police stations. They protect the legal rights of children, ensure that their parents are called and make sure that, whenever appropriate, alternatives to detention are considered. We have already made good progress ensuring that proper paperwork, something called a Social Inquiry Report (SIR), is completed for each child. Though this might sound like a dry subject, SIRs really do matter, they ensure that judges have the full facts to hand when considering each child’s case.

Kabul’s Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre (JRC) is split into two; an open centre which children can leave at the end of each day and the closed – more like a prison, in which they are detained day and night. The vast majority of children held at the JRC are boys.

So far, we have been able to provide education to children in the open centre (classes in English, Dari, Maths, IT) as well as vocational training. But the children in the closed centre have been beyond our reach. They spend most of the day locked up – ten boys to a room. One hour is given to free time outside, called ‘sun time’.

We are pleased to announce that we have just secured UNICEF backing for our work, meaning that we will now be able to provide classes in the closed centre too.

Education does so much more than just break the monotony of long days in cells. It help to set boys on a path they can follow when out of detention. It builds self-esteem and show some much-needed kindness – hugely important if you, like us believe detention should focus on rehabilitation, not punishment.

A problem that many children fear and often face is that of rejection by their family and community once they have left the JRC. They carry a stigma which, by denying them of friendship or opportunity, risks driving them towards re-offending.

Our team of social workers work alongside community workers - local contacts from across Kabul - supporting children after their release from the JRC. Their focus is on working with families, ensuring that parents stand by and help children as they find their feet. The education that we provide at the JRC can also make a big difference at this point, ensuring that the children can re-join school on their release, or pursue further training in the vocational classes they’ve been undertaking.

Over the coming months, we will be doing even more to support the children’s well-being and rehabilitation whilst they are at the JRC. Counselling will be provided in the closed and open JRC as well clinical referrals to help with cases of addiction or self-harm. We have also found that there is strong support amongst the boys, who help each other cope with life inside the JRC – we intend to recognise and nurture this peer-to-peer support.

As well as increasing our support for boys at Kabul’s JRC, late 2017 will also see us extending our justice work to provinces outside of Kabul. We will take what we have learnt at the JRC and apply it to improving the treatment and rehabilitation of women and girls in conflict with the law. This is a significant step-change in our work, possible thanks to incredible support we have recently received.