A Second Chance

“I feel like I’ve been given a second chance. Coming back home gave me a new life.”

That’s how Kajan*, a 17-year-old from Kilinochchi, described the moment he returned home after nearly 18 days in a Remand Home, an institution where child suspects are detained. He hadn’t been convicted. In fact, he’d only been charged with an offence that was bailable. But like many other children in conflict with the law, he was sent away, institutionalized, cut off from family, friends, school, and a future that once looked promising.

For years, institutionalization has been the go-to solution in response to children who are in conflict with the law. Local social work and judicial sectors, overwhelmed and cautious, often chose remand homes over community-based rehabilitation. The idea seemed safer; keep the child contained, under watch, until the legal dust settles. However, these decisions end up disrupting young lives.

This practice is gradually changing: The support extended by UNICEF via European-Union-funded ‘Support to Justice Sector’ (JURE) project, is now encouraging probation officers and judicial officials to reflect on their common responses to cases involving children. At the heart of this shift are the judicial colloquiums, where judges and probation officers gather to discuss concerns and ways to improve child-friendly justice. In these forums, one question is repeatedly posed: Is this truly in the best interests of the child?

In Kajan’s case, it was not.

Kajan remembers the cold isolation of his room at the remand home. “I stayed inside most of the time. Meals were served there. I couldn’t move around freely. I missed the warmth of home,” he said quietly. The few hours of sewing class or outdoor play offered only brief distractions. Most of the day, he was alone. 

His voice catches when he recalls the hopelessness, “I couldn’t go to school. I missed zonal volleyball competitions. I had dreams of becoming a volleyball coach, but I missed out on it. I felt like everything was taken from me.”

The sense of abandonment wasn’t his alone.

Back home, his parents barely had a meal, anxious about Kajan’s future. “It was so painful when he wasn’t around. I couldn’t even cook. Every day I kept thinking about how I could help my child return home,” his mother says.

The tide began to turn when Mr. Kangesamoorthi Manivannan, a senior probation officer in Northern province Probation Department stepped in, following a judicial colloquium in Northern province held with support from JURE.

“Afterwards, I visited the institution,” he said. “Upon speaking with the boy and his parents, I submitted a report to the court. I recommended that he be supported in the community and reintegrated into society. The Honorable Magistrate agreed, and Kajan was released under probation supervision.”

Mr. Manivannan has seen this too many times before – children who have committed offences, even minor ones, sent away into institutions. “One of the disadvantages of institutionalization,” he explains, “is that these children get labeled. But eventually, they have to return to society. If that return is full of shame and stigma, what future are we giving them?”

Instead, he argues, “Rehabilitation must happen within the community, within families. That’s where children belong. Institutionalization should be the last resort, and for the shortest possible time.”

The EU-funded judicial colloquiums implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute and the National Department of Probation and Child Care Services have helped judicial officers pause and reflect. The result has been a growing wave of understanding that every child is a work in progress, not a file to be locked away.

Today, Kajan is catching up on missed schoolwork. His timely release via Mr. Manivannan’s interventions ensured he was able to sit for his GCE Ordinary Level exams. He has even started dreaming again. Kajan says maybe he’ll become an Air Conditioner technician, develop in his craft and work abroad. His confidence is cautious, but it’s there.

He smiles when talking about his friends. “Here, at home, I can go out, talk and play. There, I had to do everything by myself, and it was very lonely. Life here is much better.”

His journey is far from over. There are still stares and whispers. But there is also laughter again, meals with family, and plans for the future.

“I’m thinking of taking a course,” he says. “Once I get the certificate I can get a job. I just want to move forward.”

JURE, funded by the European Union, is jointly implemented by UNICEF and UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice. It aims to strengthen the justice system to be more accessible, efficient, and inclusive. UNICEF leads efforts to enhance child-friendly justice and child protection processes, ensuring better protection and support for children within the legal system.

The impact of JURE isn’t just seen in courtrooms, it’s seen in small village homes like Kajan’s, where a family has reunited with their child and a boy learns that he still has far to go in life.

It’s seen in probation officers walking a quiet path with a child, choosing trust over confinement and careful supervision over separation.

It’s heard in the words of a child who once sat alone in a locked room and now says, simply, “This is where I belong.” It’s echoed in the principle that now guides more and more judicial minds: home is the first option, not the last.