IJJO Interviews

Ms. Cook introduces us in the penal English system where children are submitted to hard conditions in custody. She dismantles us a very authoritarian and punishable model that doesn’t contemplate the psychological, social and educative children specific needs for that the disturbing self-injuring, death and recidivism data in custody reduce. She also advocates the reduction of the age in which it is criminally liable from 10 to 14 years old and remembers us that the Convention of the UN says that custody should only be used for the shortest possible time.

Ms. Ryan provides us an analysis of the situation of children rights in the USA together with a description of the main activities and objectives of the Campaign for Youth Justice. In this framework, Liz Ryan underlines that The U.S. should ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights treaties, as well as, she advocates recommendations to federal, state and local policymakers, such as the development of strategies to stop the flow of youth into the adult criminal system.

Within the following interview Ms. Marianne Moore, Expert Justice Studio Ltd from United Kingdom, presents one of the main outputs of the MHYO Project ‘European Comparative Analysis and Knowledge Transfer of Mental Health Resources for Young Offenders’ , Volume II: Manual for improving professional knowledge, skills and developing advocacy programme undertaken and coordinated by the IIJO and supported by European Commission. In this context, she gives an overview of the adequate training that professionals who work with mentally ill juvenile offenders should receive in order to improve professional knowledge and skills as well as she suggests the most important recommendations that states should implement in order to improve the situation of young offenders suffering from mental health problems.

In this interview, Ms. Marin, the Head of Department for Protection of the Rights of the Child, gives an overview of the current state of the youth justice system in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Through her expertise and knowledge of Children Rights, she lists the recommendations of the recently created Institution of Human Rights Ombudsmen of BH for improving that system.

In this interview, the Director of Psychology department and the Law-Psychiatry Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School talk about the program he manages in the USA providing technical assistance to juvenile justice systems. Dr. Grisso underlines, that there is very little research evidence that screening and assessment lead to successful and effective treatment. He also presents his new area of study aiming at finding ways to improve mental health screening in juvenile justice for young people with diverse cultural backgrounds.