A little development this past few whiles-ish (my sense of time is not up there with the best of them) that I’m very happy to hear about is the renovation of the halfway house into something for the CSWDO’s, shall we say, patients, mostly because I am not sure what the nomenclature should be.
The house—thankfully not from the Navidsons—was initially intended to be used to help former insurgents in Baguio transition back to civilian life. A noble goal, perhaps, but it does fail in a few key regards, the first of which being that it is in Baguio, the most urban and most detached Cordillera territory from the actual supposed communist insurgency.
The CSWDO agreed, and found that a P5 million facility to house exactly zero people was, and most people will agree with them, a complete waste of time and resources, so a couple years back they plunked down another couple million and began the work of converting this all into something actually useful.
In its current iteration, the facility at Irisan is supposed to cater to the needs of the at-risk populace, and in particular the one that caught my eye is the declaration that one of the sectors to be treated here will be the sector of children in conflict with the law (abbreviated to CICLs).
While I have never been in enough conflict with the law as a child to have merited the need for this, I can say that at least back when I was picked up by the cops as a wee lad in the middle of the night, I was terrified, so I cannot imagine just how much harder it is for people who are in actual conflict with the law.
Think back to how stupid and foolish you were—and I know you were, because everyone was a dumb idiot kid at some point
(For the record, I was taken in for a curfew violation. My other mishaps that involved local law enforcement are similar misdemeanors and misunderstandings.)
But, as important as it is to keep the young on the straight and narrow, it is very important to accept and plan for the fact that there are definitely young’uns who will not be able to stay on that path—often through no fault of their own.
Think back to when you were a kid. Think back to how stupid and foolish you were—and I know you were, because everyone was a dumb idiot kid at some point who would always inevitably make one mistake or the other.
That’s the entire point of childhood. Making mistakes safely under the guidance of the family and the institutions around them, all in the name of learning and growth. And what happens when those families and institutions are not around them, and are not able to provide that proper guidance? CICLs.
The least then, that can be done, if the immediate family and friends are unable to course-correct these young ones in time, and they come into conflict with the law, is for us to remember our humanity and treat these younglings with the necessary empathy.
You stuff a confused, scared kid into a jail with hardened criminals, and chances are they will pick up some things from there that you’d rather not teach them. All it takes is exposure to a few bad influences to become uncorrectable.
Sure, there will be younglings who are going to continue being in conflict with the law, those who will not return to the fold. But if we can pull even one back in with this proper intervention, it will all have been worth it.
