Abstract
This chapter critically examines juvenile incarceration in Nigeria with emphasis on pupils and students of basic and post basic education schools that are not up to the age of 18. Juvenile incarceration has a lot of implications for children and young persons like trauma reaction and behavioral and emotional challenges. Cases of prison congestion with children and young persons staying with adults and hardened criminals in hazardous and dehumanizing conditions imposed on them by ‘endless' incarceration continue to thrive in our society, particularly in Nigeria. This chapter, in proffering solutions to juvenile incarceration considered the roles of school counselors as pivotal to mitigating behaviors that could be precursors to incarceration. Sutherland's differential association theory and Bandura's social learning theory provided the theoretical direction for this effort.
TopIntroduction
Juvenile incarceration is a disturbing social eyesore as many children and adolescents within the age bracket of juvenility could be exposed to tortuous and dehumanizing conditions if efforts are not directed towards reducing its prevalence. Oxford Reference (n.d.) defines incarceration as “the process of being institutionalized, by a carceral organization such as the prison service, in a prison, mental hospital, juvenile detention center, or other carceral institution which isolates inmates from the wider society.” From the definition offered by Oxford Reference, juvenile incarceration in this chapter is conceptualized as the detention or the imprisonment of persons considered to be within the age bracket of juvenility. The Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) of Nigeria as cited by James (2013), defines a child as “a person under the age of fourteen years,” and a young person as “a person who has attained the age of fourteen years.” Furthermore, James (2013) quoting the Beijing Rules of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice notes that a juvenile is “a child or young person who, under the respective legal systems, may be dealt with for an offence in a manner which is different from an adult.” Okagbue (n.d) postulates that the word “juvenile” was not defined in Nigeria’s legislative system, and that Children and Young Persons Law (CYPL) simply considers a child to be a person under the age of 14, and a young person, as a person up to 14, but less than 18. Hence, aligning this term to the Nigerian context, a juvenile is a person who has not attained the age of 18. Thus, throughout this a juvenile is perceived as person below age of 18.
A number of researches have concentrated so much on juvenile delinquency in terms of its prevalence, causes and impacts on schools and other social contexts, but perhaps with little efforts towards providing scholarship voices aimed at mitigating juvenile incarceration from a counseling perspective. Juvenile incarceration requires coordinated emphasis from experts, especially those in the helping profession or behavior science because of the lifelong implications it has on children and young persons, family members and significant others. Johns (2021) postulates that mass incarceration is a societal burden because it could affect both the person incarcerated and family members with negative implications on classroom development, as a result of trauma reaction, and behavioral and emotional maladjustments. Some negative effects of incarceration include: the possibility of the children of incarcerated parents becoming incarcerated; children not being able to complete school; increased health and psychological challenges of children from families of incarcerated parents; Poverty, unemployment, lower wages, and unstable housing; and rise in marital and relationships challenges which could lead to dysfunctional families (Michelle, 2012). Ajah and Ugwuoke (2018) lament that the Nigerian prisons are congested with juveniles who are not usually separated from adult and hardened criminals, contrary to the provisions of the law. These under aged individuals usually face hazards and dehumanizing conditions as a result of incarceration, including poor feeding and clothing, exposure to disease, and the risk of physical and sexual abuse. In addition to these dehumanizing conditions, Atilola (2012) reports that several studies have revealed a high prevalence of mental and behavioral disorders like anxiety, depression and disruptive behavioral disorders among incarcerated adolescents in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State. Considering the condition of children or young persons incarcerated in prison, there is an urgent need to put structures in place to mitigate juvenile crimes or delinquencies that could lead to incarceration. The root of behaviors that could be termed juvenile delinquency could be traceable to faulty psychological and developmental processes.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Juvenile Delinquency: Juvenile delinquency refers to offences or crimes of persons under the age of 18. It is an antisocial behavior which include stealing or shoplifting, fighting, burglary, rape, homicide, and so on. Juvenile delinquency could lead to incarceration of those who express it.
Counseling: Counseling is a professional relationship that could help individual to achieve mental health, fitness, education, and career goals. It is also a process of helping an individual to behave in a more personally satisfying way to foster appropriate adaptation in his/her environmental contexts. In this chapter, counseling was particularly perceived as a therapeutic relationship between the counselor and learners to assist the latter to develop adaptive skills or competences to be able to resist juvenile delinquency or crimes.
Basic School: In line with National Policy on Education, basic school covers preprimary, primary and junior secondary schools in the Nigerian education system. Learners spend 1 year in preprimary school, 6 years in primary school and 3 years in junior secondary school. The basic education takes 10 years put together.
Pupils: Pupils are learners in preprimary and primary levels of the basic school.
Post Basic School: The post basic schools include secondary schools, technical schools and their equivalents. Learners spend 3 years in post basic schools. Those who are more than 18 years, still in any of the post basic schools are no longer juvenile and are not the target population of this chapter.
Students: Students are learners in junior secondary school level of basic school and post basic schools, comprising senior secondary school, technical school, and their equivalents.
School Counselors: School counselors are counselors who work with pupils or students. They provide counseling services to pupils or students to help to them to achieve mental health, adaptive behavior, education, and career goals. This chapter aligned with 5 key roles of school-based counselors as: counselling services; prevention programs; advocacy and systematic improvement; administrator role; and educational and career planning.
Juvenile: Juvenile refers to child and young person under the age 18, more specifically, a child under the age of 14 and a young person up 14 but less than 18.
Incarceration: Incarceration is a process of someone being placed in prison, remand home or juvenile detention center, where he or she would be cut off from the wider society. Juvenile incarceration in this chapter is perceived as the detention or the imprisonment of persons considered to be under the age of 18.