Children in Prison

In 2004, when the Ombudsman for Children was first established in Ireland, children aged 16 and 17 years were detained in St. Patrick’s Institution, a widely criticised young offender institution. At the time, the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 excluded children in prisons from its complaint remit and weak prison oversight, and the absence of child-centred monitoring meant that children in prison were invisible. Research for the Ombudsman for Children had identified children in the criminal justice system as an especially vulnerable group who faced multiple barriers to the realisation of their rights. Against this backdrop, the Ombudsman for Children took a strategic decision to use the broader mandate of the institution to promote the rights and welfare of children by engaging with children in St. Patrick’s, to record their experiences and present them to Government to expedite proposed reforms. The Ombudsman for Children’s project with children in St. Patrick’s Institution illustrates how advocacy, including amplifying the voices of children themselves, can achieve change. Through this project, the Ombudsman for Children prompted others to listen to children in prison for the first time and this built the necessary momentum to close St. Patrick’s, bringing an end to the imprisonment of children in Ireland.