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Beaten off the track. Kids in Philippine jails
The exhibition “Kids behind the bars”, presented as part of the International Journalism Festival shows pictures of children in prisons in the Philippines. Piotr Marciniak had a look.
According to Amnesty International over 50 000 children in the Philippines have been arrested since 1995. They are accused of stealing or vagrancy. Sometimes children as young as eight years old go to jail because of playing cards on the sidewalk. Police takes them directly from the streets, where they have escaped hoping to escape from home violence and finding a better life. Unfortunately being on the streets lead children directly into a criminal world.
Living in overcrowded cells, struggling with diseases, many are slowly physically breaking down. The pictures present the cruel reality of their everyday prison life. They were taken by Hazel Thompson who worked as a social worker. Marking the entrance to the exhibition a Nelson Mandela quote states: “It’s said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but how it treats its lowest ones.”
Posted in | 04.04.09
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