Bolivia's Youngest Prisoners

Kids go to jail with their parents

By Peter McFarren
Associated Press

La Paz, Bolivia

Israel Mamani has been behind bars for a good part of his lifeall four
years of it.

It was more than a year ago when Israel's father, Justo Mamani, was sent to
prison for drug trafficking. With no one else to care for him, Israel went
to jail too.

Fortunately for Israel, he has plenty of playmates. He is one of 38
children living with 1,100 prisoners in La Paz's rundown San Pedro Jail for
men.

Little Israel, his straight black hair combed neatly into place, sucked on
a pink ice cream on a stick in the cement walled cell he shares with his
father.

His dark eyes, above his high Aymara Indian cheekbones, watched his
father's every move as the man cut pieces of leather for a purse. Mamani's
makeshift

leather business pays for the cost of feeding and sheltering Israel in the
prison and for the school he attends outside.

"I'm happy to have my son with me, since I have no other family member to
look after him," said Mamani, who is serving a threeyear term.

Some 1,200 children live in Bolivian prisons with their fathers or mothers
because they have no other place to go and the government lacks resources
to provide alternatives.

It's a common solution in several poor Latin American countries. In Bolivia

where a suspect can wait years to be brought to trial, it is something of a
tradition.

"It is a situation that dates back many

years and that has become a norm in the main Bolivian jails," says Martha
Valencia, a sociologist at the government's of fice in charge of the
country's jail system.

The only jail in Bolivia where children are not allowedand in fact the
only one with the iron bars and security doors many people normally
associate with prisons is the Chonchocoro maximumse

curity prison near La Paz.

In some prisons, entire families accompany an inmate.

Many of the children share a bed with their jailed parent, while others
have their own small cot set up in the cell. The level of comfort depends
on how much money an inmate has or can make.

At the San Pedro Jail, prisoners with enough money live in suites with
television sets, refrigerators and private bathroomsright next door to
poor inmates who must share rundown quarters and bathrooms.

At the 17~inmate women's jail in La Paz, 86 children live with their
mothers, the youngest at a day care center run by social workers. Health
workers look after them, providing regular checkups.

The female inmates work in the jail laundry and bakery or sell items at a
small jail market offering everything from food products and clothing to toys.

The government provides only the equivalent of 50 cents a day per inmate
for food, so most inmates work in jail to cover their expenses.

In the highland city of Oruro, 180 miles south of La Paz, inmates must pay
for their lodging, and some inmates sleep in open courtyards if they cannot
afford to pay for a room.

There have been cases of women who worked as prostitutes to provide
themselves with a room in jail, a social worker said.

Experts say having children in jail with a parent has benefits and risks.

One positive aspect is keeping them in contact with their families and out
of the gangs of street children, says psychologist Jose Luis Harb, a former
head of the national corrections service.

In addition, "it helps the inmate in his rehabilitationespecially
emotional and psychological," Harb said.

In the frigid, indifferent world

of a penitentiary, a youngster's presence is comforting for a mother or
father and can help to keep them from turning to drugs and alcohol, experts
say.

There is concern, however, about the effects of a negative environment on a
child's development. as well as about the risks of putting children in
close proximi

ty to criminals, including killers and rapists.

"To date, no cases affecting the safety of children have been reported
because the inmates are organized to protect them", says Vilma Velasco, a
children's rights activist.

For the most part, Israel and the other children at San Pedro Jail have
lives similar to those of children growing up outside of prison.

Fiveyearold Jorgito Encinas, whose Peruvian father is jailed for drug
trafficking, is considered one of the brightest of the children at San Pedro.

Every morning, he and other young children wait for a prison guard to
unlock the front gate so they can attend classes at a local school.

In the afternoon, they file past a check point where a guard searches their
school bags for alcohol, drugs or other prison contraband.

Older children, meanwhile, stay inside the prison during school hours to
learn wood working, handicrafts and other skills.

The youngsters often compete in soccer games in the prison yard with their
fathers and other convicts cheering them on.