Recent statistics from the Ministry of Social Affairs indicate that there are 792 minors in prisons across the country and 510 of the number are found in the Centre Region alone. The figure may not appear alarming for a country of over 20 million inhabitants with youth making more than half of the population. In addition, the presence of minors in confinement ought not to be a call for concern if they are properly judged and condemned on the bases of their crimes.
Unfortunately, provisions of the 27 July 2005 Criminal Procedure Code in its articles 700 to 745 that stipulates the legal conditions for judging minors do not seem to have been applied to the minors who today remain incarcerated. The cry from the Ministry of Social Affairs points to cases of abuse of power, delays in passing judgement or miscarriage of justice where kids are deprived of their freedom by influential neighbours or well connected individuals who wield such powers to ensure that those who wrong them are taken to jail without proper judgement and kept to wallow for months and even years for petty crimes.
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