Reform institution for young offenders accused of malpractice

The education minister Petra Buzkova has closed down a reform institution for young offenders in the wake of reports that the practices used there violated human rights and often verged on torture. Responding to a disquieting report from the Ombusdman's Office minister Buzkova paid the institution a surprise visit and found something close to a para-military regime.

"The conditions there are worse than in prison" the Ombusdman's report claimed and although the director of the corrective institution rejected any wrongdoing Minister Buzkova said that the horror stories she heard from the boys herself had a ring of authenticity. The supervisor in charge was a former prison warden and the conditions he imposed were extremely harsh - no telephone calls, visits from parents restricted to one hour a month only and physical punishment for the slightest offense. The former warden liked to impose group punishments - such as two hours of crunches or squats - regardless of the boys' physical condition - and he would encourage the group to beat up anyone who couldn't keep pace.

The story of what these problem teenagers were subjected to behind the barbed wires of the Ostrava-Polanka reform school has shocked the nation and sparked a debate about conditions at corrective institutions across the country. Mrs. Jarmila Knight is a child rights activist who works for a toll free help line.

"Well, I wouldn't say that such malpractice is widespread, nevertheless it does happen and we have been criticized for that by the United Nations. We are worried about this ourselves /NGOs/ and I must say that one of the positive aspects is that these things are now being brought out in the open, that they are being talked about and that the authorities are willing to talk about them -which is something new."

Is corporal punishment acceptable even among problem teenagers? And how is it possible that the ministry's inspection team which visited the reform school twice in recent months found nothing amiss? Those are questions which need to be answered - and if there is anything positive about the Ostrava incident it is that all such institutions will now be under much greater scrutiny and it should prove much harder - if not impossible - to impose the kind of harsh bullying which was a way of life at Ostrava - Polanka reform school.