COMMENT | Don't treat young MCO offenders like hardcore criminals

COMMENT | As the army and police tightened their grip on the movement of people around the country, the number of violators detained has exceeded 4,000, with over 1,400 charged. Among them are young people caught for going out to play in their youthful exuberance, or were just out to get some fresh air.

While there must be no compromise in the fight against Covid-19, the police were too hasty to come down hard on the youngsters. These teenagers - the future of our country - were detained and promptly bundled off to jail.

The next day they were brought to court to receive punishment. It is mostly a fine, or jail if they cannot pay the fine. Nobody is disputing the action of the police, but what is disturbing is to see these youths being hauled up and suddenly thrown into another world where real criminals inhabit.

When the government announced a partial lockdown, the people had yet to come to terms with a new style of life where they have to stay at home and not venture out during the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO).

For these adolescents, this new restrictive lifestyle is not something they can easily get adjusted to. At the early stage, they have just a hazy idea about this deadly virus sweeping around the world, and now hitting our own shores.

Even a week or two into the lockdown, the teenagers just could not control their normal tendency to go out and have some fun, be it holding a birthday party or indulging in a game of football. They are restless and must find an outlet to release their pent-up energy.

It must come as a big shock to them to be suddenly hauled away to a lockup where the environment is one of unremitting dreariness and harshness. Worse still, if they had to rub shoulders with hardcore criminals.

No one knows the condition of the lockups although Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador has said the police have been instructed to disinfect the lockups every day to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 disease.

But still, this is poor comfort because the violators are most probably locked up in a single overcrowded cell, which can potentially be a breeding ground for the contagion if one of them is infected with the virus. Then the prisons can become the new epicentre of the dreaded disease.

The bigger picture is the mental and emotional health of these young faces. Once so buoyant, a stint in prison could dramatically alter their psychological well-being to the extent that they might not be able to face the world with confidence once they walked out free.

The stigma attached to life in prison, however brief it is, would be a lifetime pain that would not disappear when they return to society. It would be a permanent scar on their psyche, which they would have to carry for the rest of their life.

The effects of prison life on a person could either be deleterious or salutary. It could become harmful when the person loses all hope in normal life and turn to crime to vent his anger and frustration. It could become rehabilitative when the person vows to turn over a new leaf.

A young mind is susceptible to all kinds of influence. When a teenager is in a lockup, he or she has for company older inmates who might turn out to be bad characters. Many ugly things can happen behind prison bars.

All those young people including juveniles who have tasted prison life in these difficult times would carry away bitter memories of their experience in prison. They would have been traumatised by the cold treatment and would probably harbour ill-will against the authorities.

Some, who might come out looking withdrawn and miserable, might even need psychiatric help if the impact of the brief prison life on their mind turned out to be too destabilising for them to lead a normal life again.

Perhaps, the authorities should relax a bit their grip on the young violators by reducing the fine to the barest minimum so that their cash-strapped parents, who cannot work and earn under the present circumstances, could afford to pay up.

It is a depressing sight to see these young offenders handcuffed, chained and in orange lockup uniforms being led to face justice in stark contrast to some prominent personalities who come to court dressed up in their best suit but whose crime stinks to high heaven.

PHLIP RODRIGUES is a retired journalist.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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