Last December, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Peru published three documents - two reports and a comic - that highlight different aspects of juvenile justice in the country.
The first of the two reports contains the results of an inquiry into social educators working in juvenile detention centres. This inquiry is made up of 240 interviews carried out between November and December of 2023. The themes investigated include, among others, the sociodemographic characteristics of these social educators, their principle working conditions, the specificities of the functions that they perform and the strategies that they employ to achieve the goals of attitudinal change in the young people.
The other report relates to a census taken of the youth population of Peruvian juvenile detention centres in 2023. The report compiles the testimonies of 1820 young people who were serving custodial sentences when the census took place, with the aim of understanding their sociodemographic characteristics and living conditions, and designing public policies to improve their lives.
Finally, the comic “Ruta 1348: los derechos del adolescente en la justicia juvenil” (“Route 1348: the rights of adolescents in the juvenile justice system”) shares information with young people about the mechanisms of the youth justice system, in an adapted and practical way. The comic follows the process that a young person in conflict with the law may go through, from being arrested by the Peruvian National Police, to the chance of entering into a juvenile detention centre and the subsequent reintegration into society. It aims to inform young people about their rights within the justice system, and what they may experience if they come into contact with it.