NCJ Number
168932
Date Published
1996
Length
154 pages
Annotation
This book examines police mistreatment and abuse of street children and the Labor Education School system in Bulgaria.
Abstract
Children in Bulgaria are often deprived of their basic rights by police, both on the streets and in police lock-up, and by skinhead gangs who attack them because of their Roma (Gypsy) ethnic identity. Once detained by police, children fall victim to gross procedural inadequacies in the Bulgarian juvenile justice system. Children may be sentenced to confinement in one of 11 schools (equivalents of juvenile reform institutions) without due process. Conditions of these schools, where children may be confined for up to 3 years, are notoriously harsh and do little to advance children's well-being, and do much to impede it. The book presents details of police violence against street children and of Bulgarian criminal law, procedure and practice. The book describes procedures for placing children in Labor Education schools and conditions of confinement in those schools, including physical conditions, discipline and punishment, grievance procedures, education and vocational training, and duration of confinement. In conclusion, the book offers recommendations for change. Glossary, notes, appendix