The condemnation of a 13-year-old girl to prison brought with it the expected shock waves and prompted the Minister for Social Security and Family Affairs to state the obvious: prison is not for children.
I will not blame the law-courts. I blame the state of the law and the fact that there are no appropriate facilities to cater for children with difficult problems. People, and children are no exceptions, are basically the end product of their genetic tree; the environment in which they are brought up and the chemicals and electricity generated by their bodies. So we cannot blame children for their attitudes, either.
It is our social responsibility to educate and bring up our children in the best environment possible. When they err, it is society’s responsibility to rehabilitate them and make them realise that they are better off in observing the basic norms of a healthy society. For this reason it is unbelievable that there are no adequate facilities to treat children with certain difficulties. I always narrate the case which I once followed in the Juvenile Court where the Magistrate found it very difficult to place a daughter away from her father who was suspected of abusing her. The only remedy was to make up arrangements with a charitable institution in Gozo administered by nuns.
The recent case seems to have taken everyone by surprise. To be frank, I found no consolation in the Minister’s words stating the obvious. I look forward to hear the Minister suggesting a practical solution and providing facilities so that in the near future, these children are given the necessary support and if need be remain in their family without ever seeing the prison’s doorstep. Readers should also be aware that normally, the Juvenile Court does not condemn youngsters to prison but gives them a probation and appoints a probation officer to look after their welfare. With all due respect, the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice was doing no useful service to the girl in question by showing his surprise that she did not appeal from the sentence. He said he would look into the law. We need a speedy amendment in the law stating that children should not be sent to prison for whatever reason. It is true that the Court always enjoys discretion in applying or not a jail sentence but if we really believe that prison is not for children we should spell it out in bold letters in our statute book.
The Commissioner for Children should not be content by simply making a short declaration to the press. She should emulate the previous Commissioner for Children and press on the government to provide the necessary infrastructure and services to better the lives of underprivileged children. We have thousands of children living in sub-standard housing; absenting regularly from school and living in drab conditions that do not reflect the signs of a civilised society.
I would have also expected the Director of Appogg to inform us of the services which the social agency provides in these circumstances or highlight the lack of them to government.
It is pathetic that in this small country of ours we seem to care only after an incident has happened. Planning seems to be some form of vagary and certain measures are taken only to waive off criticism or achieve some political advantage.

It has been reported that a 15-year old youngster, a drug victim, stole gold articles belonging to his mother to find money needed for his drug addiction. His mother has appealed through the press for the return of her stolen articles. For readers the story might come as a surprise, but in reality this is a common occurrence in hundreds of households, where children, youngsters and adults fall victim of drug abuse.
The drug problem is an issue all over the globe, but this does not in any way remove our responsibility to address it as vigorously as possible. The Magistrate presiding over a drugs’ sitting looks at the cases he handles from a social angle and has often guided parents how to deal with their children, often channelling them to the appropriate authorities to seek the necessary help. Caritas has proven to be a valuable asset in the reformation of drug addicts but I am not convinced that it receives adequate support from the State.
Time has come for an appropriate audit of the whole social security system to shed off unnecessary expenses and channel funds where they are really needed.
The drug problem is not solved in Court. It needs much more than that. Educating parents in their parental skills is just one of the tools for diluting the drug problem. Instead of feeding us programmes of little or no value at prime time, State television should have slots of educational value. But unfortunately, it is the declared policy of PBS to commercialise as much as possible its schedule. Government subsidy to the station should be devoted to the production of educational programmes presented in a light way to make them appealing to the audience. It could also make use of established programmes to hammer social values, parental skills, and the value of a healthy life among adults and the younger generation.

Adding insult to injury, the health department has reduced the opening hours of regional medical centres limiting their use till 5pm. Once, government sources said that polyclinics only serve as a form of solace to the elderly who visit them during the night because they have a sleep problem. For that reason they closed them down during the night. The argumentation shows a deep sense of indifference to persons with certain needs. An elderly person who feels himself alone and cannot sleep has a medical condition which should be cured. However, the reason pronounced for closing polyclinics at certain hours is just an excuse and the real problem is the shortage of nursing and medical staff. Mater Dei lacks nurses and doctors, so how can we provide them in polyclinics?
The country badly needs a new way of doing things (not just politics) and the sooner the change, the sooner we will start to feel that we are part of Europe and the Eurozone, and not living in a remote village in the middle of nowhere.