Teen Prisoners

Teen Prisoners

This is an expression I have come up with for the many teenagers around the world who are not free.

There are many teens who are not free to do a wide variety of things, simply because of their age. They have committed no crime, yet their freedom is restricted in many ways.

For example,

They are not free to choose where they live.

They are not free to choose who they live with, what home or what country they live in.

They are not free to choose whether they wish to attend schools.

They are not free to choose who they have romantic relationships with.

They are not free to travel. They cannot get passports until they have reached some arbitrary age, typically 18.

Sometimes they are not free even to choose who they talk to. See the "Ocean" case

In my work with suicidal teens, I have found that over and over they need more freedom than they have. They live in emotionally unsupportive, unhealthy environments, yet they are not free to leave. They may not agree with their government and they may not share the same values as their society, yet they are not free to leave the country and seek a new life in a country and culture of their choosing.

They may not want to go to schools where they are often humiliated, invalidated, threatened, punished and controlled. Yet they are legally forced to go. They are not free to choose where they want to learn. If they said "I would rather spend 6 or 8 hours a day in the public library" they would be told that is not an option. When they are in the schools they are often not allowed to leave without someone else's permission. In the USA, for example, if a teen were to simply walk out of school they would be harshly punished. In many cases they can not even leave the school grounds for lunch.

I have seen schools in Thailand, Indonesia, and South America where the teens are literally locked in. There are walls or fences around the schools, much like prisons, and the doors and gates are locked and have security guards making sure no students leave, and of course if they arrive late, they will be punished.

Here is just one picture of a school in Peru, with a close up of the lock. But I have seen many more with locked doors.

.....

Each country has different laws. But all countries I am familiar with have some laws restricting the freedom of many teens. What is ironic is that in the USA, which likes to think of itself as the land of the free, young people can not leave home until they are 18. While in Canada, Australia and England, to name just a few countries, a person can leave home, without fear that the police will forcibly return them, at the age of 16. Two years of freedom can make a big difference to a person. Getting away from an emotionally unhealthy home two years sooner might even mean the difference between life and death for a suicidal teen like Ocean, who wanted to leave home at 16, but is being forced to stay there until she is 18.

In countries where they talk a lot about freedom, I would like to see them give more of it to more of the population.

S. Hein
Dec 16, 2005

See also this article I wrote called "Teen Prison" about a home I visited in Ecuador. In Ecuador, like Peru, the teenagers (and even females in their twenties) typically have to ask permission before going out, even to go study at a friend's house. And they are typically not allowed to bring male guests inside.

Also see this editorial I wrote about Angels and Wardens