The Georgian Dream–initiated draft law “On the Rehabilitation and Support of Juveniles in Conflict with the Law” was discussed today at the plenary session, though it has not yet been put to a vote.
According to one of the authors of the bill, Rati Ionatamishvili, a number of amendments were made during committee hearings, clarifying many issues that had previously been vague.
For example, Ionatamishvili says that children under the age of 14 who commit crimes defined in the Criminal Code as serious or particularly serious will be transferred to the “rehabilitation and support home.” This category does not include crimes such as theft which, as he notes, is one of the most common offenses committed by children of this age.
Ionatamishvili also says that the “rehabilitation and support home” will be a small, family-type facility, and children will be transferred there only in cases of extreme necessity. This clarification came only after the initial proposal was criticized by part of the public, especially by professionals working on child-protection issues.
“During the committee hearings, we clearly introduced various amendments to the text, emphasizing that placement in the home may occur only in exceptional cases. And even then, it’s not a single-level decision after the referral, the court reviews it. Naturally, the court’s decision can also be appealed. Placement in the home is decided for up to six months, with the possibility of extension though this extension cannot be long-term.
As for the nature of this home, its concept is described in the bill and was clarified further after initiation. It must be a small family-type facility, where placing children of different sexes together will not be allowed, and other safeguarding mechanisms are also included. […] This is not deprivation of liberty, but placement means exactly that the child must remain in the home until the program is completed.
[…] The underlying actions we are talking about must be equivalent to serious or particularly serious offenses under the Criminal Code theft is not included. The types of crimes children of this age commit include theft, of course, but there are also cases of robbery, violence, and sexual offenses, and the statistics are high for children who, after first being noticed before age 14, commit similar or worse crimes before turning 18. This is roughly 60–70% of cases. This means that if we are not effective before age 14, the state measures taken afterward may be too late to prevent the child from entering the criminal world,” Ionatamishvili said at the November 25 plenary session.
He says that not one, but at least two such homes will be built one in eastern and one in western Georgia. After initiation, the time limits for placement were also clarified: the six-month term may be extended up to four times. However, Ionatamishvili notes that there will also be intermediate monitoring, and a child may be allowed to leave the institution earlier than planned.
Another issue clarified after initiation concerns the multidisciplinary team that will work with children in the “Rehabilitation and Support Center for Juveniles in Conflict with the Law.” This team will decide, when necessary, whether to apply to the court and request a child’s transfer from the center to the home a closed-type facility after completing the center’s programs. According to Ionatamishvili, the team will consist of specialists in children’s rights: a psychologist, a social worker, an education specialist, and others.
Rati Ionatamishvili insists that the purpose of the bill is resocialization, not punishment. He says that while developing the initiative they considered either amending the existing code or creating a new law; they eventually chose the latter. According to him, the reason was that the Juvenile Justice Code “views a juvenile who commits an unlawful act as a criminal, as an offender. We wanted to make it clear that in this case we are not dealing with criminals, and that the state must take responsibility no child, especially one under 14, should be committing an unlawful act.”
“The state must view children who commit unlawful acts not as offenders, but as those who need support and strengthened care. This is the main paradigm behind this initiative […] When we talk about juveniles in this case, those under 14 the key question is how we view the problem: as a criminal issue, or as a matter requiring the state’s positive obligation to ensure that children in conflict with the law grow up to be interested in healthy lifestyles, sports, and full education, rather than criminal activity,” Ionatamishvili said.
On November 17, Georgian Dream registered in parliament the draft law “On the Rehabilitation and Support of Juveniles in Conflict with the Law.”
The bill defines a “juvenile in conflict with the law” as “a minor for whom a prosecutor’s concluding decision confirms the commission of an unlawful act defined by the Criminal Code, and who had not reached the age of fourteen at the time of the act.”
Under current law, criminal responsibility does not apply to persons under 14, and there is no mechanism for responding to unlawful acts committed by children of this age. The explanatory note states that the draft law was created to address this problem, and its goal is the “resocialization, rehabilitation, support, and crime-prevention” of children under 14.
The initiative has drawn strong criticism from child-rights defenders. Professionals in the field psychologists, social workers, mediators, lawyers, including former public officials who worked for years with children in state agencies and juvenile justice units, as well as in child-referral centers fear the law will become a punitive mechanism and will not achieve the goals “nicely phrased in very good terminology.”