Report regarding the visit to the Juvenile Re-education Centre Găeşti
On October 9th, 2003, two representatives of APARDOR-CH visited the Juvenile Re-education Centre in Găeşti.
- General aspects
At the moment of the visit, the Centre hosted 117 minors, for whom courts had decided the measure of placement in a re-education centre, as provided by Art. 104 of the Criminal Code (of the 117 juveniles, 101 were boys and 16 were girls). 68 of the boys were between the ages of 14 and 16, 32 were aged 16-18 and 1 was over 18 (in his case, the court had decided to extend the measure for one year and a half, in order to fulfil the objective of the re-education - the juvenile had had serious and repeated disciplinary problems at the Centre). Of the girls, 10 were aged 14-16 and 6 were 16-18 years old. Compared with previous years, the number of juveniles had dramatically decreased (in 1999, for instance, the centre hosted over 500 minors). One explanation could be that the Centre was currently employed only for the “educative measure of placement in a re-education centre”, while prison sentences were served in special juvenile penitentiaries.
One year after confinement, the Teachers’ Council is analysing the situation of each juvenile and, in case they showed evidence of improvement, diligence in study and professional training, thez propose to the court (the one which had disposed the measure of confinement) to release the respective juveniles before they turn 18. The situation of each juvenile is also discussed at the end of every school year and before he/she turns 18. In the case of minors who came of age and had no disciplinary or study problems, the Centre is able to release him/her without approval from the court. Teachers’ Council hearings are organised only for those minors who constantly broke the rules or showed no interest for study. In the same time, minors are brought before court only when ther courts find it necessary. The Teachers’ Council is made up of the director of the Centre, the deputy directors in charge of education and security, teachers, the class master, a sociologist, practical skills teachers, etc.
The living and studying conditions were better than in previous years, due to the reduced number of confined persons on the one hand, and due to recent renovation works at the dormitories and school on the other hand (in 2002, the boys housing area was renovated and modernized, while this year two units were built for the girls: one for the bedrooms, the club and a canteen, the other one for the school). Bedrooms, which used to fit in up to 20 or even 30 persons, were arranged to host 4 or 6 minors each.
The staff, totalling 247 people, generally covered the needs of the Centre, both as numbers and as qualification. The education department included 60 staff members among which: 10 teachers, 20 instructor-educators, 1 institutor, 3 primary school teachers, 3 practical skills teachers, 1 psychologist, 2 social workers, 1 priest, etc. The Centre needed another general practitioner to work in the infirmary and a second psychologist. From the discussion with the management, it resulted that the two positions could be created by giving up two or three of the current positions, which are not so badly needed as the psychologist and the doctor.
- The meeting with the deputy director in charge with education
The school functioning at the Centre was entitled “Special School no.5, 1st to 8th grade, Găeşti”. All papers and certificates issued by the school bear the mark of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, which should, in principle, avoid any negative labelling for juveniles after their release. The representatives of APAFOR-CH consider however that the wording “special school” may raise suspicion and prompt questions from people whom the juveniles contact after release, especially in searching a job. Such labelling should to be avoided, especially since the measure of placement in a re-education centre is not mentioned in the criminal records.
There were five primary-school classes, 4 gymnasium classes for the boys and one gymnasium “partial attendance” class for the girls. There was also an “arts and crafts” two-year school for boys who had graduated from school and wanted to become locksmiths, mechanics and constructions-workers. There was no “arts and crafts” school for girls, but secondary school graduates got qualifications as bed linen seamstresses.
School hours were scheduled every day from 8.000 to 12.00/13.00, educational, recreational and sports activities from 14.000 to 18.00 (from 12.00 to 14.00: lunch time and break) as well as on Saturdays and Sundays.
Cultural and educational activities, as well as sports were organized into “modules”: learning and cultural activities, occupational and practical activities (planting vegetables, fretwork, pyrography, etc.), health education, sports (sporting games one hour every day, apart from the physical education classes in the curriculum).
During the summer of 2003, the Centre managed to organize 4 holiday camps: in Costineşti (for 10 minors), Timişoara, in co-operation with the Keros Foundation (for 7 minors), Vânătoru, Dâmboviţa county (for 8 minors) and Siriu, Buzău county (for 12 minors). The representatives of the association appreciated the fact that 37 minors – a third of the total – benefited from summer camps (and, notably, they were in camps alongside children their age, from various schools in the country). The selection for the camps was mainly based on school results and good behaviour.
As part of the “Access to the Community” programme, run in co-operation with the Town Hall, the Cultural Centre, the Children’s Club and the stadium in Găeşti, the juveniles occasionally enjoyed cultural, educational and sporting activities outside the Centre. Once a semester, trips were organised to Piteşti, Curtea de Argeş and Târgovişte.
As part of the programme “Rehabilitation by Faith”, the juveniles were taken to visit the monasteries of Dealu and Viforâta, or the parish churches around Găeşti.
The co-operation with the Social Reinsertion and Observation Service by the Dâmboviţa Tribunal mainly consisted of visits made by a counsellor of the institution every 2 or 3 weeks, aiming at “recreating bonds with the family” for the minors from Dâmboviţa county, mainly with those having problems in this respect. The similar Services in Târgovişte and Bucureşti, which had co-operation protocols with the Centre, offered the released juveniles assistance for social reinsertion. On September 10th, the representatives of the association made a visit to the Social Reinsertion and Observation Service by the Dâmboviţa Tribunal, their findings being in a separate report.
A promised funding of 100 000 EURO was expected to cover, at least partially, the costs of didactic material, school equipment and professional workshops.
The deputy director for education was also the chief of the Discipline Board. During 2003, about 10% of the students received disciplinary punishments (and, as the deputy director estimates, 10 of them were “isolated from the group”). The deputy director pointed out that the most frequent deeds triggering disciplinary punishments were conflicts between juveniles and destruction of property.
Each semester, parents were invited for a meeting. On these occasions, as well as for Easter and Christmas, parents were allowed to visit the Centre, including the bedrooms, the classrooms and the canteen.
- The visit to the Centre
3.1. The kitchen area
Due to the poor condition of the equipment, but also following the sharp fall in the number of juveniles, the kitchen area was soon going to be completely renovated. On the day of the visit, the minors’ food was being prepared in the kitchen of the staff canteen, since the big kitchen and several adjacent rooms had been put out of use for one year and a half. The kitchen still in use had no ventilation system and the walls were full of mould and condensed vapour.
Milk, marmalade and margarine had been served for breakfast on the day of the visit. For lunch, there was been pork soup and beans with pork, and the dinner menu included vegetable stew and biscuits. Accounting documents showed that 14 kilos of pork meat and 14 kilos of secondary products had been used for lunch. The representatives of the association noticed however that the second course contained mainly bones and fat, and obviously less meat than accounted for. Unlike the meal of the juveniles, the steaks getting roasted for the staff canteen were only lean meat and looked very well.
Hot water was permanently available in the kitchen, especially since 2001, when liquid fuel was replaced with natural gas heating.
The canteen in the quarantine and infirmary area had 4 tables with 4 chairs each. The room was renovated in 2001, the floor and walls were tiled and the rest of the furniture was new and functional. Teams of three minors had to write every day in a book their opinion of the food, which was, invariably “good” and “very good”. Especially after what they had seen in the kitchen, the representatives of the association remained under the impression that the “grades” for food were more a formality, or a matter of protocol, and less, or not at all, a mean of improving the quality of food.
3.2. The infirmary
The medical staff included 2 general practitioners, 1 dentist and 8 nurses (1 for pharmacy, 1 for hygiene, 4 for general practice, 1 for the dentist and one for the chief-doctor). Two of the nurses were on maternity leave and one of the GPs had been absent since the spring on 1999, doing his (5 year long) residential stage. It is unacceptable that a doctor’s position should be blocked for such a long period; therefore the DGP should solve such cases as soon as possible. During a working day, a doctor saw about 30 patients.
The infirmary – the doctor’s and dentist’s cabinets – had all the necessary equipment, materials and medication.
In April 2003, the Centre made a general HIV testing and no patients tested “positive”. Practically all juveniles took the test after being told what the testing consisted of and that they would only take it upon written consent (the representatives of the association were shown the lists of students who had given their written consent for the test; there had been some cases, some 5% of the total number, when the minors refused to take the test, and mentioned it on the lists).
The medical service had good relations with the hospitals in Găeşti; the juveniles were treated in hospitals from the general system of the Health Ministry, not in those belonging to the penitentiary system. This sometimes created staffing problems, since every juvenile must be permanently guarded by two non-commissioned officers (two on every shift). The representatives of APADOR-CH suggested that in the specific case of re-education centres, it would be more than necessary to take action in order to set separate hospital wards for juveniles. A positive fact was that minors were not handcuffed during their stay in hospital.
Upon admission into the Centre, juveniles were submitted to a medical exam, during which the doctors also checked possible signs of aggression in police custody.
The infirmary hosted Nicuşor-Lucian I., 16, and Adrian D., 17. The former had recently suffered a depression (and was on Doxapram and Chlordelazine), while the latter had a “lung inflammation”. The Centre had no psychiatrist specialized in juvenile problems, so the case of Nicuşor-Lucian I. showed once again that the recommendation made in that respect by the European Commission for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), right here in Găeşti, in 1999, remained useful. Living very far away from home, Adrian D. was very seldom visited by his family. The family had a phone at home, but since the minor was unable to get a phone card, he could not contact his parents, because a recent decision of the DGP forbade that juveniles borrowed each other phone cards.
3.3. The boys section
Of the two confinement rooms used for disciplinary punishments, only one was occupied by two juveniles. The room had two metal beds (unlike the other beds which are made of wood, plain mattresses, unlike the spring mattresses in bedrooms; beds had clean linen). The room had been recently renovated, whitewashed, with thermopanes. There was a sink in the room and a WC cabin with a Turkish toilet.
Valentin M., 16, was serving a 10 day isolation term. Students who were “isolated from the group” went to school in the morning, while in the afternoon they took part in the module “educational intervention for repeated offender juveniles”, activities which were usually organized by the psychologist, the sociologist and the social workers. Because his offence had been considered serious (he had pushed one of the teachers), Valentin was not taken to cultural and sporting activities in the afternoon, but just for a one hour walk outside. During the discussion with Valentin, in front of staff members, the boy admitted that he had pushed the teacher. But from discussions with minors from other rooms who had witnessed the incident, it appeared that the boy had pushed the teacher after the later hit him.
Tiberiu L., 15, was in the confinement, also for 10 days, because he had hit a colleague, who had lost a tooth in the incident. Tiberiu was taken to both morning classes and afternoon cultural and sporting activities.
Both juveniles had been heard by the Discipline Board.
In room 6, there were 6 minors (who were just going out for the afternoon programme: football, table tennis and fretwork) were hosted in six wooden beds with spring mattresses. The room had been remodelled, had thermopanes and furniture like wardrobes, chairs and wooden bed tables. The bathroom had two Turkish toilet cabins, three sinks with mirrors and a shower. The minors took a bath twice a week.
It resulted from the discussions that classes took place as scheduled, with very rare exceptions. They pointed out, however, that they were not satisfied with the food, especially because meat was generally replaced with fat and grease. Shavers (one for the whole room every three months) and the shaving cream were insufficient. The greatest problems were created by the interdiction to smoke, which was the main cause of indiscipline. They asked that packs of cigarettes which were confiscated (found about the minors or in the packages they get from home) were no longer destroyed, rather, returned to them, upon release, or to their families. The recent decision forbidding the borrowing or lending of phone cards also created discontent.
The room had been equipped by the Centre with a TV set and loudspeakers. The juveniles had not received newspapers for about 8 months.
Room 11 had 4 wooden beds with spring mattresses. It had been remodelled to offer the minors (at that time they were out for the afternoon programme) civilized living condition. It also had a TV set, as did every other room, representatives of the Centre pointed out.
The living space was of about 20 square metres, as recommended by the CPT in its 1999 report on Romania, where it stated that living space should amount to at least 4 square metres per person.
3.4. The boys school
In one of the primary school classes (1st to 4th grade), there were 10 students and their teacher. Adrian T, 16 and a half, had been proposed for release before the age of 18 (Art. 107 of the Criminal Code). His case was discussed by the Teachers’ Council on September 25th, 2003 and submitted for approval to the court. The social reinsertion of the minor did not raise any problems, because he was going to go back to his family (in the town of Roşiorii de Vede).
All juveniles had their own clothes, which they were allowed to wear whenever they wanted. In case some minors did not have what to wear, the centre was able to provide clothes and shoes according to the season (some of the minors sometimes used the shoes provided by the Centre).
Marian P., 16 and 4 months, had been punished by five days of confinement, in August 2003, for insulting a detainee (of those who works for GAZ) and breaking a window. According to the managers of the Centre, Marian had been punished shortly after getting a reprimand for spraying (by mistake, he said) an officer and the priest with water. In both instances, Marian had been heard by the Discipline Board.
Marian and many of his colleagues said that they were often prone to indiscipline because they were not allowed to smoke in the Centre (as is the case of all minors, everywhere). The representatives of the association identified in these stories a real and very delicate problem. Without arguing against the law, or trying to ignore the well-known fact that smoking is a serious hazard for the health (especially for children), they believed that in what concerns this particular rule (hard to observe by those who were smokers before being admitted into the centre), the staff should pay more attention to circumstances. That is, when it comes to judging and punishing a deed, they should take into account whether it was committed, as often was the case, because of the frustration caused by the impossibility to smoke. That frustration is somehow increased by the fact that the juveniles know very well that the other teenagers smoke without any restriction. It would be very useful and appropriate to constantly organize persuasive anti-smoking education programmes.
The minors said that food was generally good and that there were no problems in sending out and getting mail, or receiving visits (each juvenile was entitled to 4 visits per month). The number of phone-calls was limited to the number of prepay cards they were allowed to receive each month - maximum 5. The discussions with the managers of the Centre showed that the DGP order forbidding the juveniles to borrow or lend phone cards had become effective about a week earlier. Neither the managers nor the juveniles believed that, without this restriction, the relations between minors or the discipline in the Centre would have suffered in any way. Which was proved by the experience of the institution from all the years in which prepay cards could be borrowed or lent freely.
The minors said that they received shavers, soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, detergent and shoe polish every month.
Of the 10 minors in the room, only 3 had been able to hire a legal adviser during trial, and those who had not, believed that the lawyers appointed by the judge were rather formal in their defence.
3.4. The girls section
Both the bedroom/club unit and the school/workshop unit were new buildings, completed in 2003.
In room 9, which was empty at the moment of the visit, there were two wooden beds with spring mattresses and very much the same furniture as in the boys’ rooms.
The club was well furnished and functional (the girls could watch TV whenever there was no other activites are scheduled, on the only TV set in the section). The club area was too small, however, for all the girls to watch TV at the same time. The representatives of the association suggested that one more TV set, at least, should be placed in one of the bedrooms.
At the moment of the visit, in the afternoon, 8 girls of the primary school were in one of the classes for “occupational” activities (drawing and embroidering). In about one hour, they were going to take part in “recreational and hobby” activities.
The girls were generally satisfied with the conditions in the Centre, including the quality of the food. Hot water was available permanently and the bath days were on Wednesday and Saturday. On Wednesday afternoons, girls were allowed to meet, for one hour, in the visit area, with boys from the centre.
The representatives of the association remained under the impression that disciplinary punishments, especially those by “isolation from the group”, were very easily applied (the centre managers admitted that most girls had been, at a time or another, sent into confinement). Alina B., 17 years and 10 months, was sent into confinement twice, once for insulting a supervisor (5 days) and another time for breaking a window (7 days). Doina T., 15, was isolated for 3 days for “swearing” at the staff.
In the tailoring workshop, three girls were hemming bed sheets on sewing machines (under supervision). They had learned how to use a sewing machine at the Centre.
Elena T. had had 8 incident reports, mainly for disrespectful attitude towards the staff, and had received 6 reprimands, and 2 confinement decisions. Eliza I. had had 23 incident reports, and in 13 of the cases she had been “separated from the group”. The girl’s record showed that most of the 13 punishments had been applied for “disrespectful behaviour and insults towards the staff”, after having resisted body search (she had cigarettes about her), for damage to a chair (5 days) or for “having thrown a chair at the chief of the section” (in that case, there was even a complaint at the prosecutor’s office).
3.5. The sports base
The Centre had two football fields, basketball, handball and volleyball courts, as well as Ping-Pong tables in the open air. There was also a modern sports hall, with multiple functions (for volleyball, basketball, tennis, etc). Other upgrading works had been recently completed (the wooden floor had been replaced by a synthetic surface, marking lines had been painted afresh and new stands had been built).
At the moment of the visit, there were no activities going on in the hall, but from the discussions with several minors, it resulted that the hall was mainly used during the gym classes. The representatives of the association suggested that using all the exceptional facilities of the sports hall would be the best way to fill the juveniles’ time, and a very good way to help their physical development and keep them healthy.
4. Conclusions
APADOR-CH considers that, compared with the previous years, the situation at the Juvenile Re-education Centre in Găeşti has improved. This was made possible by the drastic reduction of the number of juveniles. While in 1999, the Centre hosted 500 persons (including juveniles in preventive arrest or sentenced to prison terms) it is now home to about 120 persons.
The improvement of the situation is also the result of the efforts made by the management and staff, as well as of the support received from the DGP.
Improving the housing conditions and the preoccupation in finding useful and pleasant ways to fill the juveniles’ spare time are big steps forward as compared to previous years. The association salutes the preoccupation of the DGP and the Centre to organize summer camps and trips for the juveniles, and keep them in permanent contact with their families and society in general (cultural institutions, children their age, etc).
At the same time, APADOR-CH considers that:
- although the attitude of the staff has evolved, their approach to juveniles who commit disciplinary offences might be improved; in the opinion of the association, the very large number of sanctions applied in some cases (13 confinement reports for Eliza I.) indicate the fact that the re-education process at the Centre has certain shortcomings; the persons in charge of education and discipline must bear in mind, in all their activities and decisions, the particularities of the juveniles and their many vulnerable points; the age of the minors, the environments they come from, the traumas produced by deprivation of freedom are all circumstances which are insufficiently analysed when judging or punishing certain rule-breaking deeds; the interdiction to smoke, which has been only formal before confinement, also produces frustration and even behaviour problems which should not escape the attention of educators and supervisors; the representatives of APADOR-CH completely agree with the deputy director for education who stated that “loosing privileges such as a summer camp, trip, day off, meeting between boys and girls, etc, could be much more effective than punishment”.
- although it has happened less often than before, there are still cases when the staff has an aggressive behaviour towards the minors; APADOR-CH considers that the case of Valentin M., allegedly hit by one of the teachers, requires further investigation.
- it is necessary that the Centre pays more attention to the quality of the food, especially to the use of the whole quantity of meat mentioned in the records.
- the association requires the DGP to analyze the possibility of giving up the interdiction to borrow or lend phone cards (since experience has never indicated that it could lead to indiscipline or problems of any other nature).
- the association asks the DGP to support the Centre in: the acquisition of a mini-van; the renovation and refurbishing of the kitchen; the creation of three new positions (possibly by dropping three of the existing ones) – for another GP, a juvenile psychiatric doctor and another psychologist.
Diana-Olivia Călinescu Valerian Stan
